Pioneer Woman at Heart

  When you are limited to processing every single thing you are blessed with from your garden, and your husband helps trim the green/wax beans.... Ha!  My way (above), and his way (below) of trimming the beans.  Sigh. Just had to share and give you all a good chuckle. When you are busy . . .   ©  September 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

I have dug up several volunteer herb plants, that were planted into small pots we saved from previous garden planting.  These were simply plants that spread into other areas of my herb garden.  I have not yet decided if I will put them for sale, or gift them to those wanting to start their own herb garden. Moving on....a few of my new devotionals.                              Just flipping pages in this one, I am going to like it.  It will stay in the camper of course (Devotions for campers). I love the concept of a combination brain activity (word search), with a daily devotional.   I'll be back when the canner pot releases me from captivity.  Possibly before that.  Taking breaks is nice, but tomatoes are getting ripe at the same time (which is what is supposed to happen).  Use them or lose them. Meanwhile, I have another big bowl of green beans to freeze, and a big bowl o...

  Tomato sauce canned.  It's been time consuming this month, so hence the lack of blog posts.  Sigh.  It's been very tiring lately, as well as dealing with life in general.  Canning is nothing new to my blog, so new content is an issue too.  Unless we grow something new or can a new recipe.   I'm continuing to dehydrate more home grown lemon balm for the winter teas, drying more calendula for salves, and so forth. Catastrophe has happened with my husband's cell phone while mowing.  He said he didn't realize it at first, but when he turned around and saw smoke, he new he ran over his cell phone.  More expenses have rolled in.  Life has a way of doing that once in a while. I have not worked on my crochet book blanket in many months.  Canning season can do that too.  It can be very consuming, so much that you often feel left out of fall events. We hear zero from our kids, so we are considering our holiday plans (or no plans) ...

  August was a very full filled month.  Overall it was great.  I learned things, I tried new things, canning season started, Ketchup Sweet Pickle Relish (just a few photos to share)  processed a lot from the garden, dehydrated on cooler days, and wrote a lot.   The storms we got a few days ago, have taken out several more of our tomato plants. I have to admit, I have not read a lot lately, but I am getting some itty, bitty travel time on one book. It seems to be taking me forever, but I will finish it eventually.  I am loving the non-fiction book I'm currently reading as well.  Two pages a day is better than zero a day.  I also have two new devotionals I will share soon.  I just need to get a photo of them.  So yes, "fun" and "relaxation" are still in the our lives while canning season is in full swing.  Just not so much crochet, ha ha ha! I planted cilantro indoors, dug up more herbs and replanted in pots, and even started har...

  We are still waiting on our paste tomatoes to turn red, but in the meantime, we are getting ripe beef tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers etc.  We have only gotten about 3 jalapenos so far.  We are getting more Anaheim peppers (jokes on us).  We'll take it, ha ha!  These were planted in another garden area (they were marked as bell peppers at the green house). If you read about our hot pepper devastation, something ate the tops off all 80-some plants (possibly very small baby rabbits got into the fence).  We located a few more plants, but definitely not enough to can cowboy candy, nor can pickled jalapenos, nor have enough for many other recipes we can, but a few is better than none. We are getting some kale, collards and swiss chard, but not in the amounts I had hoped for.  I will plant them much earlier next year, but we plan to get busy with a fall planting too. Creamy Cucumber Salad.  The recipe is from Real Food Dietitians (on...

Things we learned gardening: Yes, you can learn something new, even after years and years of planting a garden.   I came up with an idea to keep cucumbers from spreading out all over the ground, making weeding a nightmare.   Let me back up a minute.  My husband insisted that we not plant anything whatsoever, that spreads out on a vine this year.  Between the squash bugs last year, and the tiresome weeding with vine-type plants (that spread out on the ground like spaghetti squash, pumpkins etc.), he did not want to deal with it this year. Bent on having cucumbers from the garden,  I suggested (and I came up with this on my own, not knowing it really is a way to grow these), that we use large tomato cages to grow our cucumbers.   The plants climb up and not outward. I can't believe not one gardener suggested this to us in the last 20 some years.  If they did, I did not pay attention.  We already have a plan to build cucumber trellises...