Well, September is certainly flying along, isn't it? I've been a busy little bee and even did some traveling in early September. I went down to the Mother Land (aka Texas) to place my mom's ashes next to my dad's in the Ft. Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso.
It was a beautiful "ceremony," with just the four siblings, my brother's ex-wife (who I think of as a sister) and my significant other. Each of us took a handful of dirt from the shovel and sprinkled it into the grave, then watched as they covered it up and raked the red gravel back into place. Those of us who wanted to, said our goodbyes, shed lots of tears and went back to the hotel for a swim and to relax for a bit before heading out for a late lunch at L&J's Cafe (best Mexican food in El Paso, in my opinion) and some sightseeing.
El Paso is an interesting place, full of western history and one of the places we visited was Concordia cemetery. John Wesley Hardin is buried there, but there is also a section for some of the Buffalo soldiers. JWH was an unsavory character for sure, and met his end in much the same way as he meted out his peculiar form of "justice" - with bullets.
We also took a trip to Mesilla, New Mexico for dinner at La Posta on Thursday night. Mostly for old times sake, since the food certainly was "eh" at best. Still, it was fun being back there and seeing how much of a tourist destination Mesilla has become. The best part of the meal were the sopapillas. Perfection. Billy the Kid was captured in Mesilla, but apparently got away before they could dispatch him properly.
Dinner the next night was at Cattleman's Steakhouse. It's a dude ranch and is as tacky as you would expect, but the steaks were awesome and the sunset was just breathtaking.
Next on the agenda was dealing with my garden. I have to say over all, most of it was a bust. Not sure what happened to my tomatoes. They were off to such a great start, but petered out and I didn't get nearly as many tomatoes as I had hoped. I ended up buying tomatoes to make sauce and spaghetti sauce. There is a pot of homemade ketchup simmering on the stove as I write this and man, does it smell good!
The potatoes did okay. I did get some nice ones, but it was kind of silly. I planted three seed potatoes in each pot and most of them yielded three or four potatoes. Not exactly cost effective. I think next year, I am going to plant them in 55 gallon trash cans and see if I get a better crop. They were really tasty, though.
Green beans did pretty well - but again, not nearly what I had hoped for. I did end up with some for the freezer, but mostly we just ate what I picked. The real bust was the peppers and squash. They just sat there. I think they are all pretty much the same size as when I planted them. It's pretty weird.
The sweet potatoes are still going. I did harvest the smaller container and there were a lot of tubers in it, but I should have let it go for another month because they are all real skinny. I think they would have fattened up nicely if I had let them go until the first frost. Now I know and I will surely let the big container sit until the end of October or the first frost, which ever comes first.
The big surprise and star of the show was the apple tree, which is a McIntosh. Usually, it has a crop of inedible apples and early drop takes most of them. Scab and insect damage galore took care of the rest. Last fall, I dumped a whole bunch of cow manure, sprinkled in a couple cups of epsom salts around it and added a thick layer of mulch. I also was religious about raking up and disposing of the leaves, as scab over winters there. The tree has rewarded me this year with an amazing crop of beautiful apples. There's still some insect damage and Jordan, if you're reading this, you should stop now. I looked it up and it appears to be wasp damage. Next year, I will place plenty of traps out for them and negate some of that too.
So far, I have four bags of quartered apples in the freezer which I will take down to my SO's place because he has a fruit press and come home with cider. I also have 8 half pints of apple butter and six half pints of apple sauce put up already. This was this morning's harvest for which I had to crawl out of my daughter's bedroom window and pick them from the porch roof because I don't have a ladder tall enough to reach even with the fruit harvester's telescoping handle.
These are destined for apple pies. One for the freezer and one for dessert tonight.
In recap, the crops that did the best for me this year was the lettuce, which we enjoyed well into July, the green beans and the beets and carrots. I planted a second crop of carrots and they are just about ready to harvest now. The kale, collards, brussels sprouts, and cabbage were all victims of cabbage worms. Next year, I will use row covers to negate that.
All in all, it has been a fun gardening season, even with the disappointments and I have plans for some improvements next year. The little fruit trees I planted are all doing really well, as is the fig tree, so I have hopes that I might get a tiny crop from them next year.
That's it, folks - until next time! Enjoy the season!
