Apples Take a Turn

Oddly sweet crab apple tree on left,
sweet pink & yellow apples on the right

Flown Piggies Farm has zero pigs, with or without wings, but what it does have is apples - and lots of them. 

There are uh.... like maybe ten apple trees and the size and taste of each apple type varies wildly. There are ensy red 'crab' apples that actually taste pretty good. There are humongous yellow and pink apples in the rear of the cottage. This year, that particular tree only put out about half the number of apples it normally does. In a good year it produces hundreds of apples, but this year it yielded just short of 100 apples. No surprise, each tree's yield depends when the fruit trees bloom in the spring, and how many honey bees, bumblebees and other insects are available then to fertilize the tree's flowers. Spring weather and number of flower fertilizing insects can vary wildly from year to year.

The entire crop of one of the apple trees

There is one tree that the past 2 years didn't produce a single fruit. Didn't think it was an apple tree.  Now this year, it managed to produce - a single fruit. Not sure what the tree's problem is, but its lone apple was  pretty, sweet and crunchy. Yum! Hope I get a second apple next year...

Now what happened with this year's apple crop of  Flown Piggies Farmj apples? Some apples were eaten as is. Not a single apple made it into the many pies, tarts, Danishes, puff pastry, or apple sauce that I dreamed of making last year when the entire crop of apples fell from the trees virtually overnight. That was due to a storm and not a single apple was gathered by a human, although the local deer made out like the bandits they are. 

Yeah buddy... Got my eye on you, sneaking over to the apple orchard
 trying to look all innocent like you don't have apple scented breath

Not to brag, but this year many apples this year made it into the dehydrator so SCORE for that! 

Pear Harvest Time

One of the red pears

It's that time of year again, the orchard fruit are fat and ripe or nearly so. The apples outnumber the pears, the latter being favorites. The pears do not store well, but I'm not going to can any. Yes, my 'country gal' persona ends where the real work begins. 

My first year on Flown Piggies Farm lots of pear desserts were made, and yes, many lbs were gained. (Oh shut up, you'd have gone nuts with a glut of fresh fruit too!). Last year, 2021 the pears and apples fell from the trees so fast - literally overnight - that not a single piece of fruit was enjoyed, except by my neighborhood's population of chubby deer. 

Flown Piggies Farm boasts 3 pear trees. The closest tree to my house has  Bartlett type pears. They might be Anjou pears but would not a pear by any other name still taste like one or the other? 

The second pear tree is itsy bitsy at perhaps 10 feet tall, and it bears small red pears - which are my favorite. This year the dinky tree yielded a whopping seven pears!  To be fair to the tree, it being so small, it is possible that many of its fruit were taken early on by deer, who stand on their hind legs like trained poodles, and pluck fruit. Stupid deer. 

The massive Bosc Pear Tree, sans Partridge

The third pear tree is around 20 feet high and has what I am 99 44/100% sure are Bosc pears. The fruit are brownish gold, large, fat and they have skinny necks. The Bosc are a week or two, if not three

weeks from ripening. There's no clue what to do with them when they do ripen. The tree has hundreds and hundreds of fruit on it. I do know they are the preferred pear for fancy desserts like pears poached in wine. I can feel my jeans tightening just thinking about it. 

And more Bosc...

                                                                                                                                                            I'm bummed that pears can not be stored in the manner of apples. Apples you buy in grocery stores may be as old a year. And pioneers used to be able to store fresh apples in cold cellars, but pears are not so obliging. My neighbor Nita decided that the crop of 2022 was not going to go to waste. She has her own pear tree but it is a couple of weeks behind my trees in fruit ripening. 

Nita picking the bartlett pears

Nita brought over her orchard ladder and and we (OK, mostly she) picked a nice load of pears. 

I picked all the red pears off the little tree and soon we were hauling a big box of bartlett pears into my kitchen. 

The pears are lined up for ripening, one precious globe at a time. 

Ready for drying

A number of pears were ready to go and Nita again came to the rescue. She loaned me one of her dehydrators as well as a slicer (a mandolin) and we set to work, slicing up the ripest pears and settling them on the dehydrator trays. Thanks to the mandolin, we also each in our own kitchens, sliced up our thumbs. Ouch!

Below is a bowl of the resulting dried pears. They look ghastly in the picture, but they are sweet and tasty. I currently have a zillion or so bags of dried pears. I've practically handed them out to whomever comes within a quarter mile of my home. Gotta get that fruit eaten before next year!

Dried pears which resemble dried ears (I know... EEEW!)

A Pleasant Sunday with Family and Back to Denver

 

My Aunt and my Cuzzies at the golf course against the Denver Skyline

A full day in Denver was planned for Sunday and we made a wonderful day of it. It started with some family chat time on the front porch. I discovered I have at least one cousin who is addicted to the New York Times Spelling Bee. 

Tom, Jonni, & siblings Eric & Yvonne

 

Then we were off for breakfast at the Denver Public Golf Course. 

 

Once full of coffee and filling breakfast foods, we had a special local in mind. Cousin Yvonne did her homework before arriving in Denver. She read about an African American owned coffee shop, the Whittier Cafe and we headed there to enjoy some additional liquid eye opener, with perhaps, a dollop of cream.

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The little shop had a surprise - an Ethiopian coffee ceremony was scheduled for today. One of the reasons for the ceremony is to welcome guests. We were ready to be welcomed! So in we went - our Carter luck revealed the traditional ceremony had just begun. Soon we were each clutching a warm or cold cup of beverage and settled down to watch a young, Ethiopian born woman perform the Coffee Ceremony.

The gist of the ceremony is the pouring of hot water over beans, and there is a progression of three times in which water is poured onto the original coffee grounds. The first brewed pot is STRONG. With each of the additional brewing, the coffee is progressively smoother. After each of the 3 brewings, the young lady poured coffee into sampling cups and passed out the samples to her eager audience. 

The ceremony certainly gave feelings of friendliness and inclusion, and in that light, the Carter family chatted among themselves and with other customers watching the ceremony. And the coffee samples? Delish! Each round of coffee was notably different from the preceding round. 

The Mural

The last round of coffee served up is called 'Baraka'. That final round of coffee is considered a blessing and is known as the “one for the road”. So having had our 'one for the road' we prepared to leave, but first we requested the young lady join us for photo op in the outdoor dining area of the shop. 

Alas, the end of our Carter Colorado Pop-up Reunion is nigh, for tomorrow we all head home. We had a lovely time cousins! Can't wait to do it again. 

A Tractor, a Tale and Wagging Tails

 Another gorgeous day in Colorado with my family. For starters, several of us lolled about on the ranch house's front porch. All were tickled to see a dust cloud in the distance which turned out to be Cousin Jonni, driving herself along the road in one of Tom's Aunt Judy's farm vehicles. Jonni had the company of 2 of Aunt Judy's friendly Border Collie dogs. We had fun fussing over the pups.

Tom, and Jonni-ann with her pup companions

But suddenly the dogs jumped off the porch, bulleting down the road. David said they must have heard Judy's car coming, but nope! It was Judy alright but she was driving her HUMONGOUS green tractor carrying a round bale of hay with Cousin Charlaine as her co-pilot. 

Judy, Charlaine and doggos, headed for the porch

None of us had any idea what a treat we were in for. Judy had rummaged her files back at the ranch. She chose poetry inspirationally written by Tom's grandfather. The poem told the tale of Tom's grandfather, out checking three cows, who had birthed their three calves, all in the deep snow of a winter blizzard. I wish I had the poem to post here, which contained true cowboy humor. 

It was like watching one of those CBS Sunday Morning reports which are so beautiful that I feel sad that I wasn't there to soak it up. But here I sat, live, in person, enjoying the sensations of poetry as it washed over me, setting me down in a snow coated rangeland, blinking as snow flakes landed on my eyelashes, and the moos of livestock serenading my ears. Yeah, that was heaven.

Judy, the Williamson family historian

The rings on the coasters are beautiful

As if all that wasn't gift enough, Judy had risen early that morning, and set to sawing segments of the ranch's ancient & aged fence posts into slices. Everyone got a set of the beautiful ringed tree, drink coasters. 

That was the best of the day in my opinion. After Judy's visit the whole fam got busy packing and making at least some effort to leave the ranch house in good shape. There was some disturbing news, concerning Tom's father which had us on tenterhooks on the drive back. Tom's dad had suddenly taken ill, to the degree that Tom's sister was flying in from out of state. We all worried along with Tom and hoped he and his sister would be able to handle the crisis and that their father should survive it as well. Family means having to handle such crises and we know Tom and his sister are up to the task.

Back in Denver we all had quiet - or as quiet as we manage to be - evening.  For dinner we all ordered pizza at a v. close restaurant and some of the more energetic cousins (yeah, not me) walked over and picked up the orders for all of us. We had a lovely dinner, loads of chatting and happy anticipation of tomorrow's activities. 

Bridge Party!

View of the ridge about a quarter to 'Alpine Glow'

 Morning morning coffee around the campfire

It was pure bliss waking up at the ranch house and then sniffing about for that all important cup of java. NO, I am not addicted to caffeine, and how dare you even think such a thing! 

When I was showered & dressed I noticed several of my cousins were either still in bed, or were... where? I found a 'mess o' cousins' outside sipping their coffee at Dave & Tom's new (to me) fire ring. While we chatted cousin Eric sent up his drone to explore the surrounding hills. Great way to start one's day - the coffee, that is.

The fire ring is a new addition 

None of us went hungry for breakfast today

After coffee, Dave & Tom served up another tasty & hearty breakfast with loads of bacon and sausage. Then our gratious hosts offered to show us a recently built beaver damn, just a little ways up the road. . 

The beaver dam of sticks and mud & the pond it created

Wild Hops

The beaver dam was not the morning's only natural history lesson. There was a fruit laden, wild current bush and several of us ate a berry or three. And we noticed strange looking pale green 'thingies' growing rampant along the roadside. David told us the greenish bobbles were hops, of the sort used to flavor beer - how convenient!

Garden Tiger Moth

Another discovery was back at the house - a beautiful moth, wearing what appeared to be party clothes. 

The rest of the day was spent with Aunt Arna and the cousins playing cards at the dining room table. But the majority of the time was spent - by David & Tom - preparing for the big event of the day, the Bridge Party up at Tom's Aunt Judy's Ranch. 

At day's end we were all dressed in our Colorado Carter Family Reunion tee shirts. David and Tom had spent the greater part of the afternoon preparing dishes for tonight's 'Bridge Party'. A little background here... Tom's gracious Aunt Judy throws Bridge Parties for guests. She did so for us Carters in 2018 at which time my cousins thought we were going to a card game party, so they had beefed up on the instructions for playing Bridge and bought new card decks and such, only to find out they'd been invited to a Party, taking place on a Bridge. 

Here are we are at our 2022 Bridge Party, as photographed by Cousin Eric's airborne drone. 

Meeting of the Matriarchs
Tom's Aunt Judy & the Carter's  Aunt Arna

It was quite the Carter day, as we weren't the only Carters up for an occasion. Judy had invited family friends who we met at the last Bridge Party in 2018. The kids we met them are quite a bit older now (Duh, right?) and the youngest, ironically named Carter, is today's birthday boy! We serenaded him with a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time round of "Happy Birthday" over a lovely, candle spangled cake.

Happy birthday to the Carter of the day!

It gets cold when the sun sinks behind the eastern ridges. David & Tom offered anyone under prepared warm coats and jackets. For Aunt Arna, a beautiful mink coat came out of the hall closet. It used to belong to David's Mom. It kept Arna snug, warm and fashionable for the evening. 

Arna and Charlaine

It was a lovely evening for sitting, chatting and catching up. One of the family friends (and of course being a bear of little brain I can't remember her name - sorry what's yer name - shared genealogy stories from her family. We were surprised we had roughly similar stories either of which would make a great episode for either Who Do You Think You Are or The Maury Povitch Show. Both of us have a male relative from ages ago who had not one, but two wives, who didn't know their man had 2 separate families. Shocking! That made us think maybe such things are not as rare as one would think. For the record, the bigamist in my family is not a Carter, but a Miller... fascinating stuff. 

Our Bridge Party gathering went on well into the dark of the night, when slowly we all gathered our things, said our 'Irish Fairwells' and headed back to the ranch house. Tomorrow is another busy day.

Off to the Ranch

 

Colorado scenery along the way

All were up at leisure this morning, chatting and packing enough stuff to see us through the next few days. After another great David & Tom prepared  breakfast we were nearly ready to depart. For togetherness and ease, the fam rented a large van. Like a well organized mini-army the van was packed.and we took off late morning for the 4 hour drive up to the ranch house SW of Hayden, CO. 

Looking all sharp in our matching Bajan Tees

Our cool new Carter Family tee shirts were worn for the drive. We chatted & snacked along the byways towards Hayden. 

Tom and co-pilot

Colorado scenery is spectacular, and though we didn't get any pix, we spotted several herds of Pronghorn Antelope. 

Before we knew it, we were lolling about on the ranch house porch

David and Tom outdid themselves on dinner. Tom served up marinated & freshly BBQ'd chicken which was delish & very pleasing to the carnivores amongst us (that would be me), 

Gnocchi, not Enoki 

David made 'Gnocchi', which are potato dumplings that were fried in butter with veggies. 

Enoki not Gnocchi 

I dug in to the delicious little morsels, all the while wondering 'Where are the Enoki mushrooms?' I guess I haven't previously heard Gnocchi pronounced correctly, if at all. 

David set me right, and we all wolfed down the tasty gnocchi fried all crisp and tasty. Several of us decided we have to try fixing gnocchi on our own. And there was also a tasty side of delicate asparagus spears.

Much later, we ran out of steam, but not out of conversation, it was time for bed. Eric & I planned to  camp out on the front porch. However, David & Tom brought out the air mattresses, so between the 3 bedrooms with numerous beds, the couch and air mattresses, everyone ended their day all snug & comfy - and all of us inside. But honestly, I'd have happily snoozed out on the porch, dreaming of roaming Mountain Lions, the odd rattlesnake.