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

First Snow: The Lazy Boyz Want Snacks!

Over the weekend we had snow, so the ski areas are happy and so was Ms. Pearl.

Playing Frisbee in the snow is the best thing, ever. The Frisbee lands under the snow and Ms. Pearl must dig for it. It's a fun time for a dog, that's for sure!

The Lazy Boyz, Roman and Buffalo, are looking decidedly, well, beefy. And very furry.

Do you have any snacks?

When temps get into the teens and below, or if it snows and the grass is covered up, we feed extra hay. If The Boyz don't keep up their calories, they will lose weight. They are full figured dudes and we want to keep it that way.

It's almost sundown, but the sun is still on the rim rock for a few more minutes.

Ms. P says that's just enough to throw the old Frisbee one more time.

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.

Growing Dome- Fall 2014

It really is fall here, now, with the pretty aspen trees and last night's below freezing temperatures. In SoCal, there really aren't distinct seasons, but just hot and not so hot. Back in California, when it dipped into the 50's, I'd get out my long underwear and think I was really cold.

 But I didn't really know what cold was until I moved to Northern New Mexico. Heck, there's a small community around here whose nickname is Little Alaska, for heaven's sake!

But I am willing to put on my coat and longies for winter because it's a fine trade for wonderful, temperate summers. Months of over 100 degrees is not my thing, so I find the lightest weight, high performance warmies to wear during wintertime and deal with it.

One way I cope with colder weather is with my Growing Dome, where I have a chance to garden and to bask in the winter sun. Over 300 days of sunshine definitely hits the spot.

During winter I grow cool season crops like chard, kale, lettuce, and all that.

 During summer, I grow most of my tomatoes and all of my cucumbers inside the dome. Some friends grow tomatoes outdoors, but I seem to have bad luck with outdoor tomato plants. They give me a few and then it freezes. I know I could mess around with walls of water and little hoop houses, so maybe that's on the agenda for next year.

Right now my outdoor tomatoes are toast, but inside things are still perking along.

It's like a jungle sometimes/ Sometimes I wonder how I keep from going under (Sorry-Grandmaster Flash took over for a sec.)

In here it's usually about 20 degrees warmer. Temp outside was 29F last night, but all is well inside the dome.

Here's a pretty yellow tomato. I had some red ones, but a varmint climbed inside and chewed them down. We added some wire mesh to the side air vents, so maybe that will keep the little @#$@ out.

We still have plenty of green tomatoes, so if our days are in the 50's to 60's for a while longer,  they will ripen.

We have a load of cucumbers on the vines. Earlier in the summer there were juicy, tasty green straight eight's. Then a couple weeks ago the cucumbers started looking like this. I waited for them to turn green but they never did. They taste fine except for a little bitterness at the stem end (my fault for not being a consistent waterer). Earlier I replanted some varmint-ravaged plants, and maybe they were Poona Kheera seeds? It's a mystery.

Each time I visit the dome there is something to pick, which is totally cool. Earlier I had a bumper crop of Shishito peppers, but the aphids made them anemic, so I had to pull the plants. Those peppers were the best, though, just sauteed with a little salt and lime. Yum!

My fishies are doing well. Last year I was mystified to see strange little fish in the dome's water tank, then realized my original three goldfish had a menage a trois which resulted in fourteen goldfish babies! 

Not Koi, but plain old Wal-Mart goldfish, they recognize me when I lean over to visit, happy to eat their fish food pellets.  During winter they hunker down at the bottom of the tank and wait for spring.

So come on, winter! I'm ready for you. 

Well, kind of.

Sheep Camp

There aren't any sheep, but Roman and Buffalo, a.k.a. The Lazy Boyz, investigate where Tom has moved the sheepherder wagon, closer to home for the winter.

Ms. Pearl says "Back off! This is my place."

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!

Early October Snow

While I stayed inside, toasty and warm on the couch and perusing the internet, Tom and Ms. Pearl went out exploring the snow that accumulated last night. Pearlie had fun chasing those pesky ravens. They drive her nuts.

The snow is a couple weeks early, but because the daytime temperatures are well above freezing, it will have melted away in a day or two. The steers will get some hay rations today since the grass is covered over.

Tom Boyle photos

The weather dudes and dudettes are predicting rain and some snow for the higher ups, with sunny skies tomorrow.

That's good, because these photos look bleak and I don't do bleak.

If we were like Ms. Pearl, this would be an opportunity to enjoy the change in weather and to plow through the snow like an insane person. Not a bad attitude at all.

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

Last Glimpses of Fall

Although today is absolutely gorgeous and we should have a high in the 60's, tomorrow comes the cold weather, in the 30's and 40's with lows in the teens.

So here is a last hurrah for fall before all the leaves freeze and fall off the trees.

Buddha Tree and Fall Sky

The Buddha waits patiently for winter. Nothing bothers the Buddha.

During these fall days the afternoon sun is warm and it's fun to sit up among the rocks, watching the traffic go by. Once there were three trucks in 15 minutes!

Lately, most of the traffic watching involves turkeys. It's hunting season, but so far they have been spared. Why, I want to know, are the turkeys in our yard? They should be hiding!

That long porch on the cabin's south side will be the go-to spot when it is cold but sunny. Already the sun is low enough to shine inside, making it so warm I need to open a window. I'm not complaining, though, because Our Mr. Sun will be helping to keep the place warm in just a few days.

I think fall is my favorite season, at least right now it is.

Freezer Apple Pie Filling

My applepeelercorer in action.

A couple weeks ago I promised you an apple pie filling recipe, but then I hemmed and hawed and wrote about everything else.

Why?

Well, after I made the pie filling but hadn't yet canned it, I read in several places that cornstarch is not recommended for canning. The heat doesn't conduct well enough through the cornstarch to make the mixture hot enough during the canning process, rendering it not safe. A product called Clear Jel was recommended for thickening the apple mixture instead of cornstarch.

So I froze the pie filling instead of canning it, a quart of filling in each of four gallon sized freezer bags. Then I jumped into making other apple products. I worried about the cornstarch in the frozen apple pie filling. Maybe I shouldn't share the recipe, I wondered. I wouldn't want to poison anyone. So I practiced the art of avoidance and didn't write about apple pie filling.

Then I felt guilty because a promise is a promise. I said there would be an apple pie filling recipe, even though I posted this one, a danged good one,  a couple years ago.

After a little internet research, I found the exact same recipe (including cornstarch) on another site, but they called it Freezer Apple Pie Filling and none of the comments had an issue with cornstarch. The cornstarch issue must be for those who can. Who can can. Okay, enough.

So now I feel better. Here's the recipe. As I was making this pie filling, I did a little tasting and this would not only be good for pies, but for topping a cheesecake, added to oatmeal, or to plain Greek yogurt, well, you get the idea that this stuff is totally awesome, dudes and dudettes!

Freezer Apple Pie Filling

Ingredients:

16 cups apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (that's my peeler slicer corer in the photo)
4 T lemon juice
3-4 cups white sugar, depending on the tartness of your apples
1 cup cornstarch
4 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t salt
8 cups water

Directions:

1. Toss the apples with lemon juice in a large bowl
2. Combine the sugar, cornstarch, spices and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Pour water into a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.
4. Whisk the sugar mixture into the water in the pot and bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes, stirring constantly.
5. Add the apples and return to a boil. Reduce heat and cover the pan. Let the apples cook for 6-8 minutes, until they are tender but still hold their shape. Watch out or you may end up with applesauce if you cook it too long.
6. Cool for 30 minutes.
7. Ladle the pie filling into 4 quart sized freezer containers with 1/2 inch headspace or into 1 gallon sized Ziplock bags. If you are using bags, try to remove excess air before sealing.  Cool at room temperature for no more than 1 1/2 hours.
8. Freeze.  Or make a pie right now.

Pie filling can be stored for up to 12 months.

Black Cherry Tomatoes

I know summer's over, but some tomatoes are still producing inside the Growing Dome.  I am a happy October gardener. How long they will last depends on the temps this winter, but a lady in Pecos had tomatoes up until a February deep freeze of -20 killed them. She covered the lettuce and other greens, though, and they survived just fine.

The tomatoes are called Black Cherry.

Most of the red cherry tomatoes were gone by the time these guys ripened in late August and I'm still picking about ten a day in October. That's not many, but I still have the Cherokee Purple ripening, too, with green ones still on the vines.

A word about Black Cherry plants: They grow gimormously and I should have done a better job helping them to climb. Instead, they slumped over the tallest tomato cage so I used another tomato cage to prop it up. Branches are crawling across the dome's floor. It's The Plant That Ate Guadalupita!

How do they taste? Black Cherrys taste sweet with little or no acid depending on how ripe they are when picked. When you bite into them there's a burst of fruit flavor. Some folks describe it as smoky, but I don't get that.

Here is a link http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/88786/  with more comments about this tomato which I will be growing again next year.

I bought my seeds from Tomato Fest.

Just Past Sunset at the Nickel and Dime Ranch

 Looking south from the ranch headquarters porch, a.k.a the cabin.

Canning Chaos-Slow Cooker Apple Butter

It is wonderful to have a bumper crop of apples. I just had to add that link because how the heck did bumpers get into the crop business? Now I know and so do you.

I have been busily slicing apples, making them into apple pie filling, apple butter, jarred apples and dried slices.

Trudy's gave us this amazing peelercorerslicer, which she had when they lived in Apple Valley, CA. When they left their apple trees, she passed it on and it's been getting a workout.

This contraption has made peeling almost 100 apples a breeze! And no, I didn't peel them all at once. That's for hard core canners. I am a lightweight, believe me.

People around here don't waste a thing, so canning, freezing and drying are part of life, just like it is in other agricultural parts of the United States and in some hipster enclaves in Brooklyn. Just kidding: I know there are folks everywhere who have decided they want to know where their food comes from and have been preserving their hearts out. And that's a good trend, don't you think?

Here at The Nickel and Dime, the little kitchen has been in chaos for a week, but the end is in sight and I dream of quality time in the sewing room during the chill months ahead.

I figure I will make another batch of apple butter. I used the Crock Pot so it was easy. All I did was layer apples and a sugar and spice mixture up to the brim of the cooker, plop on the lid and cook it for about 12 hours. I didn't stir it until the 12 hours were up. Then I removed the top, turned it to high and let it cook down for a couple more hours. 

Here's the recipe:

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

5.5 lbs apples, peeled and finely chopped

3 cups sugar

2-3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

Layer apples,  sugar and spices (mixed together) in a Crock Pot to the brim. Cover the pot and cook on high for 1 hour. Then turn to low and cook on low for 9-12 hours until thickened and dark brown. I didn't stir mine, but newer slow cookers seem to cook hotter on low, so you might want to give yours a stir or two if you have a new one.

Enjoy how fragrant your house becomes while this is cooking. 

After it looks brown and thickened, remove the lid, turn up to high for 1-2 hours. You can determine if it's thick enough by dabbing some apple butter on a saucer. If it holds its shape and isn't watery, you're done!

Now you can use a whisk or an immersion blender to smooth out your apple butter if you want.

Spoon into freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch space at the top and pop into the freezer. You can also process this in jars in a water bath canner. 

Makes about 6 half pint jars of apple butter

Next recipe is for the apple pie filling, really!

While Ms. Pearl is happy to pose with a basket of red delicious apples, she wants you to know that she likes tomatoes but not apples.

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