Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Deep Cleaning and Garden Clean Up

(Before I started)

The photo is only one small corner of the 3 vegetable and fruit gardens we have this year.  Day one started with pulling dead tomato plants and pulling stakes.  A good portion of the back is still under water.  This clean up, considering I'm doing it by myself, will take a week or two.  


After starting to clear the corn stalks from the garden, I got an idea.  I took a few of them to the front of the house and added a few pumpkins and squash that won't make it to the table (vines died before they ripened, or bugs got to them).  They will make a nice decoration for fall, without having to buy anything or waste anything.  It's a blessing that the garden keeps giving in different ways.




And speaking of the garden blessings, we are still getting more green peppers.  I am dehydrating some of them today, and may be doing that for the rest of the week.  I have no room in my freezer for anymore.  These can be used in soups/meatloaves/stews, and all sorts of goodies.  Instead of drying my cayenne in the dehydrator, I simply pulled the plants and tied them to hang upside down in the garage.  I still want to build my solar dehydrator for spicy peppers.

In between it all, I am working on deep cleaning the house.  The garden kept me busy, now the house/home will - windows, walls, doors, the inside of the fridge and so on (sigh).

I put notes on a few jars in the fridge yesterday.  They all say "Eat Me!" on them.  There are a few jars of salsa and some pear butter that need eaten up.  I may try to "wing" a recipe tonight and use the salsa to spice it up.  I bet it would taste good mixed in with baked spaghetti squash.

6 comments:

simplicityinthemaking said...

Doing the same thing here.
Brought in five bucket loads of green beans, last batch of the year and am blanching them as I type to freeze. My freezer is full and the chickens aren't even done yet! Nice feeling. Wish I had your dehydrator. Good job with the corn! Soon I shall get the grape vines and make something with them. You have inspired me with the front porch.

Patricia @ 9th and Denver said...

The solar dehydrator sounds interesting to me.
I we don't have anything else in the state of Texas right, we do have solar energy! lol...
The peppers sound good.
I've got a few onions in the ground...I found these at the hardware store last week when I went to town.
I've been doing some 'deep cleaning' too. I get in the mood this time of year!
I like the idea of your notes that say "Eat Me!" on them...when my kids were home I was forever having to put notes on things that said...
DON'T EAT ME. That's no fun.

take care~ Pat

Candy C. said...

Dang, the neighbors gave me a spaghetti squash yesterday and I've been trying to decide what to do with it! If you get a winner, let me know! :)
Let's not talk about deep cleaning the house, okay! ;)

Turtle said...

an idea too when hanging your herbs, i put the hanging heads in a paper lunch size bag with a loose rubber band. This keeps them dust free, absorbs their moisture as they dry, and makes collecting the herbs once dried super easy! I have to get out and uproot everything. We expect our first frost in the next few weeks.

Unknown said...

I always put some corn stalks and add them to my front porch for the fall too! Nice and natural...

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Candy we love spaghetti squash mixed with marinara sauce. Here is a link to many recipes (we love the Greek one): http://www.healthy-recipes-for-kids.com/spaghetti-squash-recipes.html