Summer to Fall, A Quick Transition

Our first frost came just when it was supposed to, between September 25-30, so I guess fall is really here. Monsoon rains are over, pine needles are dropping, the yellow zucchini plants look droopy, the maple tree is shedding its leaves and bees and butterflies are having last call drinks from the yellow chamisa blossoms. But days still feel like summer. A friend who was harvesting onions yesterday remarked on how searing the sun felt.

We have crazy apples this year, so apple juice, canned apple pie filling, dried apples, and who knows what else will be preserved.  This is one of three different trees, so I look at them with love and also with dread. It's lot of work to put up all these apples, but worth it when I don't have to buy something at the store.

Red Delicious Apple Tree

Last week we had friends over for dinner: chuck roast, potatoes, country style green beans and a cucumber and tomato salad. I realized later that the only thing we'd bought from the store were potatoes. That's a good feeling.

This stuff was grown inside our Growing Dome

Although the grama grass grew well this past summer, look at that dry dirt! Let's hope for snow.

 This isn't about fall, but just an update on the new pup, Liza Jane. She's a crazy nut, enjoys fetching, and likes to be out and about exploring the ranch, digging holes, and thinking about what it might be like to herd four legged ruminants. Here she is contemplating the neighboring yak herd.

I am still amazed at the changing seasons and don't think I will ever tire of it.

Silent Sunday-Fall in Northern New Mexico

Fall is Rust and Gold

The yellows of the last-of-the-season blooming chamisa in the foreground along with the golden cottonwoods and rust colored oak leaves help me to appreciate the concept of seasons.

Wood and Green Chile Are In

A couple weeks ago I was at our local Mora Farmer's Market and the weather was unseasonably cool, in the 50's. Everyone was bundled up and there wasn't a pair of shorts in sight. Peggy, one of the farmers, said, "It's a reminder to get your wood in!"

We've been working on that.

Almost everybody uses wood heat around here. This is a common sight, although there's usually a dog of some sort riding on top of that load.

In town, the cool breezes carry the sharpspicysmoky scent of roasting chiles. The folks who tend these baskets with their fiery heat will roast the chiles you choose in nothing flat. You can find them on street corners, in front of grocery stores, and at the fancy mall in Albuquerque. The smell of roasting chiles is a reminder to get your chiles in. So okay, that's what I will do.

People line up for their favorite roasters selling their preferred chiles: Socorro, Hatch, Rocky Ford are all represented around here. I've been buying Socorro chiles from a crack team of roasters led by a man in a wheelchair.

When the chiles are done, they are shoveled into a heavy duty plastic bag (I suppose there is BPA there but I will pretend not). Inside, it looks like an inferno happened. At first I was kind of, "Ewww!' but they smell so good.

I split 40 pounds with a friend, so we each left the chile roaster with 20 pounds of chiles. At home I removed chiles from their black bag a handful at a time and packaged them in smaller plastic storage bags.

This year I listened to friends who said, "Don't peel or seed them, just put the chiles in the bags and do all that when they're defrosted." So I defer to experience, and it was a lot faster and easier this time around.

What will I make with all this green chile?

Here are a few links to my favorite green chile recipes:

Pie Town's Famous Green Chile Apple Pie

Grilled Cheese and Green Chile Sandwich

Green Chile Mac and Cheese


While I was at the post office today I noticed the aspens up higher in the mountains are turning yellow, another reminder that autumn is here. I didn't take this photo, but if you are near Taos, you are in for a big show.

Happy Autumn!

Do You Have Your Wood In?

This is a common sight right here in Northern New Mexico. Nights are starting to freeze which means nippy mornings and wood fires.

Fall Already?

The past couple of weeks have reminded me that winter is coming. The yellow-flowered chamisa is the last of the allergens to bloom and I think this blooming schedule has been designed to make all the hay fever sufferers happy to see the first frosts and the last of their runny noses.

"Die, chamisa, die!"

The first frost was about a week and a half ago, killing the summer veggies, so goodbye to you,  tomatoes, peppers and green beans.

Since then we've had a few more nippy nights but the kale, carrots, cabbage and lettuce survive.  I planted too much cabbage and we are not sauerkraut fans, so cabbage soup is in the cards.

Next year the summer stuff will go in earlier since the raised beds are in place and ready to go.

Upcoming jobs: the dead plants are outta here and garlic goes in that empty bed in the foreground.

Plant garlic by Halloween; harvest it on Fourth of July. Sounds okay to me!

Sun Worshipper

With autumn comes the sun through living room windows and a dog who worships that sun with panting, eyes-closed bliss.

Autumn Leaves

nature is most seductive when it's about to die, flaunting the dazzle of its incipient exit - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20166#sthash.x72HSMeB.dpuf

nature is most seductive when it's about to die, flaunting the dazzle of its incipient exit - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20166#sthash.x72HSMeB.dpuf

nature is most seductive when it's about to die, flaunting the dazzle of its incipient exit - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20166#sthash.x72HSMeB.dpuf

nature is most seductive when it's about to die, flaunting the dazzle of its incipient exit, - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20166#sthash.x72HSMeB.d

Delicious Northern New Mexico Autumn

With a title like that, you're probably expecting an apple recipe or some other thing besides a post about October here at The Nickel and Dime. But I promise a few more apple recipes soon, really.

The other day I took Ms. Pearl for a walk and was wowed by the fall colors against our blue sky. This shot is from our driveway which has pasture on one side.

I can watch the wind work its way toward us. It moves in the far trees and the grass, its path rippling through the amber like a wave through water. It's like I am in the ocean on a surfboard watching a golden swell come closer.

On the other side of the driveway the oaks look brilliant.

The air feels crisp but the sun is warm. Ms. P decides we should walk toward The Enchanted Forest. She swims in the beaver pond which makes her day complete.

On the way back, Pearl alternately trots alongside and disappears into the trees, but when I call her, she reappears, just like a magician's assistant. "Here I am," she says. "Why are you worrying?"

The grass swishes against my jeans legs and little teensy burrs grab onto the denim. I use a broom to sweep them off when we get home.

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.  ~George Eliot

Solar Dog

It's autumn and the sun's angle has changed, shining through the south facing windows, helping to keep the house warm.

Ms. Pearl thinks this is just dandy. She lies in the sunpuddles, panting and soaking up the heat like an old codger in a sauna.