Puttin' Up Purslane

One bonus from all this rain and recent heat wave, is that the weeds are galore.  Edible weeds - purslane.

Although this is wonderful fresh, I'm stocking up as much as I can for winter soups and frittatas.

I steam it for a few minutes, and followed the directions found at Mother Earth News online page (regarding harvesting purslane).

I cooled it per their instructions as well, to not wash off the vitamins and minerals - filling a metal bowl with ice water, putting an empty one in the ice water, and cooling the steamed purslane.

Cleavers Facial Wash ~ Natural Wrinkle Remedy

When ever I read something new about a weed I harvest, I give it a try if I can.  The season for cleavers are over for us, but I wanted to share this.

I made a tea with cleavers. I just made sort of an infusion in a pint canning jar, strained it and put it in the fridge.  

Dip your washcloth into the tea and rinse your face with the tea solution at room temperature (or cold).  Cleavers at as a skin tightener, so in reality, reduces wrinkles and lifts up the skin naturally.

Some people may have a bad reaction to this facial wash, so try a small area at first.  If you use fresh cleavers in you tea (not recommended for this), you have greater chance a having a skin reaction.

I used this tea for 2 straight weeks and feel and see a difference.  I also used it cold on my face, and it felt great in the heat of summer.

Homemade Cake Flour ~ Serviceberry Drop Cookies

To make homemade cake flour, simply remove 2 Tbsp. from each cup needed, and  then add 2 Tbsp. of organic non-gmo corn starch.   Sift many times before using.

You can buy organic powdered sugar from health stores.  You need powdered sugar for this recipe.

Serviceberry Drop Cookies
(recipe adapted form "How to Prepare Common Wild Foods" by Darcy Williamson)

1/2 cup organic butter, softened
1 1/3 cups organic powdered sugar
2 farm fresh eggs
1/2 tsp. homemade vanilla
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. cake flour (see instructions at top)
1/2 cup dried serviceberries

Soak dried serviceberries in 1/2 cup boiling water for about 10 minutes.  Drain.

Beat butter until creamy.  Slowly add sugar until it's fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Gently add flour, and don't over mix.  Stir in serviceberries.  Drop onto cold cookie sheet, about 4 inches apart (about 1 tsp. size drops).  Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.  Remove from hot trays and cool on a rack.  Sprinkle with organic powdered sugar.

Serviceberries contain iron, vitamin B2, maganese, copper, biotin and other good stuff.

Note:  Make cookies small.  They spread out and are thin.

Mom picked the berries in the rain, so I took some over to her too.  They are very good.  The season for them is very short, so next year I'll have to raid her berries so I can make a few more new recipes.

Recipes Morel and Nettle Bake ~ Random Tidbits

Although a bit late for morel mushrooms here, I'm sharing a recipe I found you all may like.  I hope to try it next spring.  I'd probably use ground organic oats with some Italian herbs, or grind up some homemade "croutons" for this recipe.

Stinging Nettle Smoothie and other Tidbits

Yesterday I enjoyed a nettle smoothie.  I used blueberries and bananas for the fruit, some homemade yogurt, ice, and organic pomegranate juice.  Nettles are loaded with vitamin A and C, calcium, potassium, iron and a bit of protein.  Very low in calories too.

I'm trying to get as many weeds put up before the farmers start spraying too.

Coffee Cubes

It's a very short post today folks.  So much to do, so little time.  I am so far behind on our vegetable/fruit garden it's not even funny.

Although nothing homesteady (is that even a word?) in this post, here goes. . .

The sunrise was just beautiful this morning.  Although both Hubby and are sleep deprived, we sipped hot coffee on the porch.  We've see deer, and today (oh joy) a fox.  We've also had a visit more than once from our hummingbird and a few woodpeckers.

Dandelion Poultice ~ Cleaver Poultices

Spring weeds are here now.  I wonderful time to gather, eat,  and store. I put some weed pesto in the freezer already.  I weeded about 95% of my herb garden, and all of the weeds, aside from the little bit of grass, were edible (or useful for natural remedies).

I've had quite a few experiences with dandelion since I first made dandelion jelly.  Over the years, I have made dandelion bread (which we absolutely love), dried dandelion for tea purposes, blanched and froze dandelion for meals (we love dandelion pesto), dried the root for a coffee substitute and medicinal purposes, and now I am making poultices.

Dandelion poultices, can be used to treat eczema, skin rashes, boils, and to reduce itchy skin (helps with itchy poison ivy). 

I am putting these poultices together in the freezer, like I do with comfrey and plantain.  There is nothing more comforting than a cold poultice in the summer, for an itchy rash too.

I am also putting cleaver poultices in to the freezer (as well as dehydrating some for medicinal purposes).  Cleaver weed poultices can be used to treat burns and even sunburn.  Spring is the only time I am able to pick this weed.  It's often found growing directly in my garden and will stick you like glue.  

Dandelion Poultice ~ Cleaver Poultices ©  May 2018 by Kristina at https://pioneerwomanatheart.blogspot.com/

If you were wondering. . .

I canned more wild violet jelly first thing after my work out, and checked the weather.  Were you wondering if our rain stopped yet?  Well I was.

We got more rain, but I had a break in the day to get outside.  Oye. It's wet out there, but after checking the asparagus and garden (for damage), I high tailed it to the flower beds.  I could spend a week out there, plus the herb garden.

I have a plan for the wettest part of my vegetable garden.  Updates to follow if it works out.

I felt like the "If you give a Mom a Muffin" but with the weeds yesterday.  One thing just led to another.

I started weeding flower beds, and found several ornamental apple trees growing in it.  I dug up two and transplanted them.  I went back to weeding, but after pulling all the cleavers, it was almost a day with the cleavers.  I filled my dehydrator with them, and had a bit leftover.

Knowing our family motto, that has been on this blog for years now, you know I try to use everything I can, and what I have (and try to waste nothing).  So....two cleaver poultices were made and put into the freezer.  They can be used to heal cuts, bites, and even sunburn (cools the inflamed skin).

...and

Wild Violet Jelly ~ Garden Tidbits

My homestead has a somewhat good amount of wild violets.  

I was itching to pick some wild purple violets, for my "new" jelly to try this year.  I've never made it and we had a very busy weekend.  So...I picked the violets....

Tuesday Tidbits ~ Chickweed Pesto

Warning....not good news just yet.

First, Hubby isn't off night shift after all.  A call came, and he's on 3rd for a few more nights (maybe).  

Second,

And "Poof!" Weekend Gone

I can't really say I felt like we had a weekend here.  Hubby worked all through the weekend, and with the continued 3rd shift, I am totally off sync.  

We had a family baby shower yesterday, and that was interesting.  Hubby got home at 8:30am-ish, and went to bed.  He got up at 2:15pm, and we went to the baby shower late, then left early to come back so he could nap for one hour before leaving for work again.  He insisted we be with his family at this time, and I truly felt they needed it too.  Us too.

However, we hit a big snaf-foo!  On the way home in his truck, because my car still has a falt tire since last Wednesday (he hit something on the way home, and with the funeral and 2 days of 100% rain, it was put on the back burner), his brakes started going out on us.  Thankfully our daughter wasn't driving.  He got us home by downshifting, but he needed a vehicle to get to work.

Stinging Nettle ~ Preparing it ~ Teas

Spring is just around the corner here, and nettles will be growing like crazy.  I'm posting today to encourage you to forage your edible weeds.  Ants love my stinging nettle, so I try to harvest it before they discover it.

Stinging Nettle is a wild growing weed.  It's best to harvest first thing in the spring, however larger leaves in summer can still be used for tea making.




Stinging nettle contains fiber, and protein, and is a packed with Vitamin C.  It also provides Vitamin A and other healthy nutrients.  It helps with seasonal allergies, helps removed retained water, reduces joint pain (arthritis), swelling, helps hair growth, may help with urinary issues, and more.  To obtain more information on edible and medicinal weeds, check your local library for resources.  Here is one useful book:

Nettle ~ Black Eyed Pea Spread ~ Gratitude

I harvested another huge pot of stinging nettle yesterday.  Before the rain arrived.  It's been a very good year for me to actually get things done in a more timely fashion.  I hope to harvest more.

I got out there early, before the bees woke up.  We have bees everywhere right now.  

I picked more than would fit in the dehydrator, so I blanched the rest for the next breakfast or pasta dish.  Nettle can be used in any dish you would use spinach or other greens.  Did you know 1 cup of cooked nettle contains 428mg of calcium?  Dandelion, 1 cup boiled contains 147mg of calcium.  According to the internet, those are the figures I found.  Hm.  A huge difference. No wonder my teas helped my hair and nails. 

What's on the breakfast plate?

Dandelion Bread

Sunday my morning started in muck books, then my afternoon in biker boots, then to the evening with my apron, then back to biker boots, and lastly in muck boots.  We never made it to the garden, ha ha!  It's still too wet.  I checked it early, while Hubby and Son made a trip to recycling, just to be sure we stayed on track for the day.

My morning started with this.

Hubby was teaching Son how to use the riding mower, and I went running frantically to ask them to stop, and to wait.

Hubby helped.  Although reluctantly, as he was eager to take me on my first motorcycle ride.

Harvesting Black Walnuts

 Yesterday's sunrise.  Just beautiful!

I took some time to pick up two five gallon buckets of our black walnuts.  They have pretty much fallen in the last few days here.  In fact, they were falling on me as I picked them up.  Black walnuts contain more protein than English walnuts and have a stronger flavor.

The hulling and rinsing process is underway, but these will need to dry in the sun.  (click on "read more" to see the remainder of the post).

A Day with the "Queen"

I couldn't hold myself back any longer.   I mean why not?  Hubby is still fixing his truck, so the tree(s) still stands.

I found this recipe by purchasing a discarded library book at a library book sale. You never know what you'll find at one.

And a note:  I do not go looking for recipes like this one, they seem to find me.  And I really enjoy making them, and trying them.  I've been making this one for four years now.

Flood Warnings ~ Porch Time

We had pretty good day in the garden, and I am kind of glad we did not get the weeds out between the smaller pepper plans, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, nor the carrots.  

It's raining again, but today's forecast is 100% rain, heavy rain, windy, flood warnings, and flash flood warnings.  We are to get 1-5 inches of water.  Maybe the weeds will help protect the plants from the wind today?

I also successfully weeded half of the herb garden.  The green onions look terrible this time of year, but I do see little sprouts forming already.  

I picked more berries, cut some oregano, and had a daughter shell peas for me, and clean off the dried thyme.  Overall, it was a pretty good day, all things weather-wise, considered.

Apron Kind of Day

I've been having what I call "apron days" here lately.  Starting my day in the "garden" apron, then the "canning" apron, then my "housework" apron, and ending it in my "cooking" apron. 

Today's my day starts with draining more cheese.  Mmm!  Tonight we'll enjoy some with either hot pepper jelly, or port wine jelly, on crackers.
 

What we will get more of:

Monkeys in the Kitchen ~ Flip Flops In the Coop

The rain brought the wild black raspberries into harvest early this year, and it's hot, humid and miserable to pick them (as always). 

Our first day picking was done together.  Most of the time we spent slapping ourselves (thank goodness for chickweed salve), hollering out at the prickers and blowing bugs off us as we picked as fast as we could.  One time I heard "Awww, I dropped it!"

Weather and Weeds ~ Random Tidbits

You are probably tired of hearing about it, but it continues to rain.  I woke up to the same wet ground again.  It has rained either during the day or night here, every single day.

It was dry most of yesterday, but too wet in the vegetable garden to even step into it.  

You can see in this photo, how tall the weeds are in the broccoli and cauliflower garden.   If the sun stays out today, I may be able to get into that garden late today yet.

Halfway through the day yesterday, I started on the front flower beds.   This is one corner I was looking at from the porch. 

This is what I was looking at afterwards.  This is just a snippet of the front porch flower bed.

(just one corner of the front porch flower bed)

 
Here is how far we got with mulch, before we ran out.  I guess we'll get more.  We have already filled the rose bed, the mailbox bed, and two other rose beds with mulch.  There seems to be a lack of color right now, but zinnias are very slow to grow with all this rain.  They were buried in weeds and wet ground.  Once the zinnias bloom, we'll have all sorts of color to beautify the gardens with.

The weather looked like this most of yesterday.  Today the sun is shining.  I have high hopes to get more work done in the vegetable garden.

If it rains again today (there is a 60% chance for thunderstorms at 11am....sigh), I always have deep cleaning chores indoors, handiwork, and a new Lucy Stone murder mystery book from the library.  And Hubby and I can always cut wood inside the barn too (maybe).  

It's just hard for me to shift gears so easily, and not worry about the garden.  I need to go read my morning devotion, relax a bit, pray a bit, and move out of my pity party.

The wild berries are ready for harvesting.  We had planned to pick today, but we are fighting the rain again.  It will be interesting if we get any wild black raspberry jam made this year too.

I just looked at the pollen count for today.  No wonder my eyes are beat red when I do get outside work accomplished.

 Today's reading is not a good report for someone like me.  
 

A heartrending update on Hubby's sister in the hospital.  She cannot swallow food. Not even pureed food.  They had to make the decision to have a feeding tube in place.  She's had two tubes down her throat, so we hope that over time (and healing) she'll be back to real food some day in the future.

Did you notice something today?  There is no "read more" to click on today.  

I better scoot out and pick snow peas quickly.  I hope your Sunday is peaceful, relaxing, productive, or whatever you want to accomplish (or not accomplish) today.