Colorado Fruit, Shakespeare, and Summer

Bear at Fritchman Orchards in Eckert, Colorado

After a slow start, I have finally been taking advantage of the weather. It may be September, but summer does not officially end for two more weeks.

An abundance of fruit

This is a bumper year for fruit on the Western Slopes of Colorado. My husband and I visited our friends' ranch to pick apricots last month. The trees were loaded. We barely made a dent in the masses of fruit. It won't go to waste. Deer, birds, and wild turkeys eat apricots.

We stopped at Fritchman Orchards to purchase cherries, peaches and corn. There are fruit stands, and then there is Fritchman's. Photos in the slideshow below.

With this abundance of fruit in our possession, we now had to process it all. Our eldest daughter and the grandkids spent a day with me, canning apricot butter, peach pie filling, and peach-mango salsa, and drying apricots. I also froze peaches, and made apricot juice for a future batch of jelly. My husband started a batch of what he calls cherry sherry. 

A couple weeks later, making apricot jelly from already prepared juice was a breeze. The grandkids are delighted with extra-special peanut butter and homemade jelly sandwiches.

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Part of the cast of Antony and Cleopatra

SUMMER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Antony and Cleopatra at Rock Ledge Ranch

All that was fun, but a lot of work, too. For a relaxing evening, my husband and I went to a local production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. As usual, Theatreworks amazed and entertained.

And September Begins

This weekend, the grandkids helped me with a bittersweet project. We weeded the front flower garden, and cut back the dead flowers. Cleaning up now will make spring garden prep tons easier.

​So on Labor Day, I spent time in the backyard vegetable garden. I'm already thinking about what did well, and bears repeating, and what changes I'd like to make. Can it already be time to start shutting down the garden in preparation for winter?

​I'm going to cling to our remaining summer days as I anticipate the changeable fall weather. The first killing frost will come soon enough. For now, I'll spend as much time as I can outdoors, soaking up the last rays of summer sun.

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