Pioneer Woman at Heart

If my kids think I went nutso, by making the Dandelion Coffee, the Dandelion Jelly, and the Milkweed Flower Bud Quiche, they will really think I've fallen off my rocker now. I have been going through old cookbooks, and reducing my supply.  I found a recipe for Queen Anne's Lace Jelly.   Instead of cleaning my much needed bathroom, I walked around the property and plucked about 18-19 full heads of Queen Anne's Lace (not to be confused with Hemlock). I soaked them in water to remove unwanted "guests" and then rinsed them twice.

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.

  I had a request to share the final wild violet jelly after it was processed and made, and I am finally getting the photos together to share that.   I apologize for the delay. 2 cups of wild violets with 2 cups of boiling water poured over them to infuse).  I was told to let it sit up to 24 hours, but I have let my infusion stay in the fridge after that for up to 3 days.  Strain the flowers from the liquid. Add juice of one organic lemon.  The mixture turns from a blue-ish color to a more pink color. Add the liquid to a pot on the stove, and add one box of powdered pectin.  Stir and bring to a boil. Don't forget to get canning pot ready and prepare jars and lids. Once it comes to a boil, add 4 cups of sugar and bring to a hard boil for 1 minute. Fill jars with 1/4 inch head space, wipe rims, add lids and I put my jars in a water bath for 15 minutes.  The recipe I was shared, did not have a water bath time, but most jelly recipes say 10 minutes. T...

  I canned 5 more 1/2 pints of Queen Anne's Lace Jelly.  If I had more jars, I'd can up the entire field of flowers.  We have it all over the property. It's growing where my sunflowers won't grow.  Despite watering by hand, the lack of rain is a concern. It's growing around the barns. All around back, it's growing in the tall grass.  We have to rotate the goats on tie-outs due to the lack of grass in their pen. It's even growing in the yard, where the grass is not.  The grass that we mow down is brown and crunches when you walk on it.  However, the Queen Anne's Lace is still growing and blooming.

Sunday the humidity was terrible here.  Even so, I canned one batch of wild black raspberry jam, got caught up with laundry, garden work and even got dinner made before going to the movies with Son and the family.   This is a "grab a cup of java" kind of post.  I beat my son up this morning.  How?  I have no idea. Ha ha! We enjoyed our first green and wax beans this season at dinner too.  Yum. 

from the homesteading journal. . . The garden is producing kohlrabi, lettuce, sugar snap peas, beets, organic red stem Swiss chard, collards, mustard greens, and radishes. The green beans, peppers, tomatoes and broccoli are just now coming in too. The joke's on us.  The flat of cauliflower that we bought just down the road at the produce stand, was marked incorrectly.  It was not cauliflower.  It was kohlrabi.  Big bummer.  The company hubby works for, dropped us off our insurance plan, and put us with their basic plan.  All because hubby forgot to fill out an online survey.  We are sunk.  We lost our co-pay, and don't have prescription coverage and have a huge deductible per person.  He's sending in an appeal, but it takes 45 days.  Basically, we'd have to spend out thousands before our insurance would pay anything.  We are paying a large amount to not have anything covered that was covered before.   The ridic...

This was a very interesting moment.  This vulture was sitting like this for a long time, just looking around (with it's wings out).   It was a very dreary, rainy (again) day, so the sky is pretty dark too. It's rained every day now.  I continue to battle mud, sweat and giant weeds.  I found Queen Anne's Lace growing in my garden, so two flower heads are now in my freezer awaiting more, for some sweet jelly.   You may enjoy my post a few years ago, for the Queen Anne's Lace Jelly (click on it to read it).

I discovered wild rose bushes around the property last year, and have wanted to make a batch of rose jelly. I located one recipe for rose petal jelly:  

Green beans and wax beans are starting to come on. Although we have a ton of Queen Anne's Lace, I won't be making jelly this.  Maybe. Thanks to the tip from Goatldi yesterday, I froze corn for the chickens cool down treat.  They loved it! I spent all yesterday morning watering everything.  We had a heat advisory. Today rain is in the forecast.  I'm taking a chance and not watering, so pray it does.  We are being warned of a second heat wave after the rain.  Sigh... The heat is just sucking the positive mojo and energy right out of me.  One daughter is depressed (the salon called yesterday and told her they can't afford to keep her on staff).  Hubby is agitated when he gets home.  Who wouldn't be?  He works in this heat and next to 600°F equipment off and on.  Yesterday he had to work where it was 120°F. I need a motorcycle ride or camping trip.  Both will not happen in this heat either.  I need a ...

I recently mentioned our Queen Anne's Lace Jelly , and thought I'd share my Nature Journal.  

  Any foragers here?  I have a few reference books, but zero information in them in regards to if Purple Dead Nettle and Henbit both have the same nutrition/medicinal benefits to the body.  Anyone? I know, it's crazy question, and there are not many homesteading blogs still blogging anymore these days. Spring rain is great for a lot of things, but it is always the reason we get stuff planted so late.  The gardens are soaking wet, and this is what most of the vegetable gardens look like.  Not kidding.  They are too big to cover for winter.  We use a lot of space.  They are full of purple dead nettle and chickweed. The last few warmer days should start to dry up the gardens for us. I have added spring chickweed to salads and other meals in the past, but according to my blog (and other notes), we have not yet tasted purple dead nettle. Foraging was pretty easy (just look at the above photo, ha ha!). I did a lot of reading, and yes, I have a few forag...

I canned this season's first dandelion jelly.  Last year it did not set, and I had to re-boil it.  This year, I used a different recipe, and it set.  Now....we just have to taste it.

I've started making more jellies earlier this season.  I'll be ready for when the wild black raspberries and Queen Anne's Lace are in season now. The organic section at my store had organic juice on sale for buy one-get one free.  I got a few and got busy canning. Apricot Nectar and Tart Cherry Jelly   More Dandelion Jelly     Grape Jelly    Orange-Mango Jelly   ....and this is only the beginning.

I'm posting early today.  Hubby brought home another 10 lb. box of blueberries and a box of peaches.  I'll be busy for sure. Here's an update on our journey to being self-sufficient.  Each year it gets better.   In the last 3 1/2 years we have really gained progress with self-sufficiency.  It does require some investments, but those pay off.  So far this year, with making our own soap with our goat's milk, have not had to buy any bars of soap (and have used it to make homemade laundry detergent also). We have not purchased dishwasher detergent either, and I am proud that we have reduced those chemicals and costs. We have not had to buy any onions or potatoes this year.  Last year we did.   We went all winter using green peppers we froze versus buying them from the store. When we are low on eggs, we do without.   We have cut down the cost of buying organic milk by having the goat's, and have drastically cut down the trips to...

Our garden blessings went camping this year.  I was much smarter this time in packing our food.  Instead of putting a carton of eggs in my cooler, I cracked them, whisked them, and poured them into recycled glass peanut butter jars (canning jars would work too).  In the cooler it went.  We also took homemade Queen Anne's Lace jelly and peanut butter. I also chopped all the veggies and packed them separate for our first grilled stir fry and rice campfire dinner.  The only thing I need to change on that part, is to pack them in glass jars. Our cooler smelled like onions, because I used a ziploc bag - blech. I pre-cooked our brown rice, and it heated up nicely on our campfire griddle pan.  Served with chopsticks Breakfast was easier with the eggs pre-cracked and whisked.  Instead of buying main stream frozen potatoes, I pulled a bag from our freezer that contained garden potatoes.  I also pre-cut garden green peppers and onions to mix with ...