Enormous apples can grow in Nevada

Is it true if you pinch all the flowers except one off your pumpkin plant you will produce one large pumpkin? How does that work with your apple tree? I didn't pinch flowers off my tree, in fact, out of our 20 apple trees, one had four small apples, but to my surprise, our tree named after our oldest son Garrett, who is in the Navy, had one enormous apple. It was large enough to maybe make a whole apple pie itself.

I don't know if you know this, but I love to cook and bake, and although I don't eat sweets, my husband loves them. I didn't want to take the time to make an apple pie so I chopped up the apple in bite-sized pieces and put them in a 9-by-9-inch glass cooking dish that I sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Then I added a handful of quick oats, a little bit of flour, some brown sugar, some white sugar and cinnamon and a few chunks of margarine. Then I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. My family was in heaven with this wonderful, not too sweet, dessert.

As for this beautiful pumpkin, we'll just carve it for Halloween and that will be that.

Do you have a child going to Piñon Hills Elementary School that could benefit from having extra help with homework? Maybe you work and don't have the time to keep up on helping you child. Homework club started Sept. 24 for students in second to sixth grades. Your child can go to the library from 3:25-4:25 p.m. and get help from Ms. Coleman, Mrs. Rice and Mrs. Robinson. They can help with Reading Counts quizzes, or any other homework assignments. The biggest thing to remember is to pick your child up promptly at 4:25 p.m. This is such a wonderful benefit for all of us who need a little extra prompting to get our children to do their reading or homework. Thank you so much to the teachers and helpers who offer this program.

Do you have a story you would like to share with our readers about your summer vacation, your garden success, or any other interesting subject? I would love to interview you and write about it. Just give me a call.

-- Lisa Welch is a Johnson Lane resident and can be reached at 267-9350.