Pioneer Woman at Heart

  We are getting more rain.  It's a muddy mess, and rain is too continue for the weekend.   Fresh purslane in a salad is my first way to add it to a meal, but to long term store it, I decided to try dehydrating it.  First, you need to pick the smallest, newest plants, as the stems will take longer to dehydrate. I also air-dried the cuttings a few days before adding them to my dehydrator.  Once they are completely dry, I ground them up into a powder, to add to any meal (soup, stew, eggs, sauces, dressings, smoothies, etc.). It is a new "first time" for us to try this way to store purslane.  Purslane contains high amounts of oxalates (according to my own research), so always do your own research when foraging. I'm wondering if purslane can be frozen, and then maybe added to a recipe with a food processer to add to egg dishes, soups and stews?  Just a thought. Purslane   ©  August 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  We have been getting a lot of rain, thunderstorms, and even a very close to us tornado warning.  The last storm took down several of our tomato plants. You know that saying "if life gives you lemons...?" Well, life gave us mislabeled red bell peppers, and we ended up with Anaheim peppers.  Literally. In July of last year, I made homemade chili peppers from our home grown Anaheim peppers, and they were delicious.  They are very easy to make too. I made them again, but this time we are freezing them.  I just used my muffin pan to freeze 2 oz. portions, and then popped them out of the muffin paper (used parchment for this batch), and then placed them all in a freezer bag until I use them for meals. Did you know that when you drain a purchased  4 oz. can of diced chili beans, you end up with about 2.5 ounces of actual diced chili peppers? I just open my freezer bag of pre-frozen, 2 oz. chili peppers, thaw them, and add them to any meal I am wanting to use th...

  The pickings are slim right now, but we'll take anything we are blessed with.  I made a salad and cleaned the beans.  The rain will give us more for a meal in a day or so.  The green beans are every so slowly coming on this season. I made a batch of homemade granola, and instead of my homemade vanilla extract, I used my homemade Christmas Spice Extract.  It smelled so good in the oven, and while cooling.   I picked some purslane, and am doing an experiment with it this time.  Update soon.   Chit Chat ©  August 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

                          I had a request for the pattern instructions for the Christmas project I previously posted about (in the last blog post).  It is free online, and it's from Yarnspirations.  It's actually listed as a dishcloth pattern, but I'm gifting them as hot pads.  They are 100% cotton yarn.  The original pattern for the project, is called "Sailor's Knot Dishcloth Pattern."  It's found on Yarnspirations  online. (image source is from Yarnspirations) The original pattern is all white, but then they posted doing it with Christmas colors. Mod Green is no longer available for the green yarn for this, but they sell other green color options.  The pattern is a free printable pattern. Enjoy! Pattern Source ~ Christmas Crochet (in the previous post) ©  August 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I'm cramming a lot into one post for the end of July.   Gardening work has been in full motion, for veggies, herbs and flowers.  Despite cutting the planting down by almost half this year, we have had a lot to up-keep.  On top of all my regular chores and happenings, sweet corn is in season.  Oh boy, the work load has doubled, but happy to get it done this year.  Corn frozen.  Job done. If you did not read about it, we did not plant any squash at all this year, to kill off the squash bug.  However, we have not been able to locate many produce stands with yellow squash.  Zucchini is everywhere, but a lack of yellow squash.  Our adventures continue.  We did our very first local 4 mile bicycle ride.   After many years of having this on my "bucket" list, I grew our very first lemon.  It was delicious too. We have taken more camping trips to off set the work days, relax, and enjoy life.  I have brought home two...

  I tried a new granola recipe and boy it's good.  First, it's a recipe from Mennonite Girls and Cook, and called "Backpack Snacks" online.  It calls for granola, so I used my homemade granola that we love.  Picture is the dry ingredients. Second, I pressed the final mixture into a 9 x 9, parchment lined baking dish instead of rolling it into balls.  The color of these photos are all different, because of the time of day, and how dark the house was from the thick Canadian smoke that was still outside at the time. These cut very nicely, and were very good, straight from the refrigerator.  It was hard to eat just one of them.  I will be making this again, and switching out the peanuts with walnuts, and switching out the raisins with dates.  Oh my!  The binder is honey and peanut butter. These are perfect for your hiking days, camping, your grandkids, or just for snacks when you want one. The rain arrived thank goodness, and washed the smoke in...

  Sharing another crochet book blanket granny square I recently completed.  One more caught up, but they need attached to the actual blanket yet.  My husband picked this book out for me at a very small, and very fun book store last year.  It was a long book, and I would give it a 7 out of 10.  It was just too much every day drama in 480 pages for me.  It was a half-price book, and now I know why.  I am still thankful for my husband's love in supporting my reading habit though (he he). I made this salad again, but this time used organic kamut pasta.  I also used my homemade organic, chive blossom infused red wine vinegar in the dressing.  Next time I will swap the salt for my homemade jalapeno salt .  I will possibly add chicken next time as well.  It is missing cilantro, as my two plants went to seed, and my newly planted seeds have not grown large enough plants yet. Update:  In the evening this level went up to 796! ...

I finally got this granny square done.  I finished this book a while ago.  Yikes.  It was a good book though.  It was a blind date with a book gift to me. If you have not read about my crocheted book blanket, you can see my very first post about it, which was posted January 1st, of 2025 (click HERE to see it).  The last "end of the year" update was posted HERE .  I will try and get an updated photo in the next few months. Technically,  I crocheted the first granny square for my book blanket back in December of 2024.  Guess I better get some books read huh?  Thick smog is outside.  Canadian wild fire smoke is heavy.  Air quality is terrible.  It got up to 103 degrees yesterday, and it remains hot and very dry.  The grass is dying.   It's that dry. Thunderstorms may arrive in a few days.  We hope.  It will help water the gardens and cool us down a bit.  It will also get rid of the air smog. I'll admi...

  It's not hard to believe, that I had every single color of yarn to match this book cover.  I'd give it an 8.5 out of 10.  I'm still two crochet granny squares behind, but I'm not going to stress over it. The heat wave continues.  Not sure if our greens will survive this one or not. Crochet Book Blanket Granny Square   ©  July 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

I have not had much to blog about, and to be honest after looking over past posts, I really don't have much that is  new to post about.  Changes are being made here at the homestead, with more to come, and they are all good and productive.   Honestly, they are not wasted days either.   We are downsizing the kitchen table, and it will make it much easier to sweep and mop.   The upstairs is still in limbo (uncertainty) right now.  In reality, the summer times leaves little time for home repairs and such. We replanted what hot peppers would could buy, that were affordable and big enough.  Half of the green and wax beans were replanted and have sprouted.  The greens did terrible where I planted them this year.  I have replanted two of what I had seeds for.  We will not have arugula this year.  We are entering another heat wave, which makes garden season a bit tricky. The first zinnia seeds sprouted almost immediately, but...

First day of July.  It's hot.   I'm definitely not entering a stage of boredom any day soon.  Although I've been doing a lot, it's been productive.  We are in the middle of the worst heat wave I can ever remember.  So humid, there is very little to no work being done in the gardens for the last few days.  Heat index has been up to 106 degrees, and nights did not get any cooler than about  77 degrees.  The heat wave will continue for the rest of the week.  No rain yet. I froze water in small bottles to keep the chickens water cold, and froze treats for them. I canned a small batch of reduced sugar peach jam (before the heat  wave).  I have to admit, it's been very nice to can for two people now.   Enjoyed the last of our asparagus harvest.  The last two stalks were harvested June 29th.  The longest asparagus season we've ever had.  They look light colored, but taking them out of the fridge, they quickly...

      On the positive side (after the hot pepper debacle). . .                                                We are looking forward to creative healthy meals, derived from the garden and whatever is in abundance, or available.  The chickens helped supply this meal last year and was delicious. Beets roasted with onions and rosemary from the herb garden.  Also, a picture from previous garden years.  Oh, we put thyme on these too, and also from the herb garden. Not to forget those tomatoes and all the sauces made over the years.  That dish included asparagus from the garden, as well as oregano from the herb garden. Sometimes a roll down memory lane gives us the spark to keep gardening and planting.  Maybe.   Reminders?   ©  June 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  After spending the hottest days here planting over 80 different hot pepper plants a few weeks ago, I went out to hoe the tomatoes and my heart sank.   To be honest, I wanted to throw up.  Gardeners would understand. Something got thru, or over the fence, and chewed the tops off of all the hot pepper plants.   Just chewed off the top and left it lay. I could sit and wonder all day (in anger, despair and frustration), but we don't know if it was a very small baby rabbit (never had this happen with the fence), or a squirrel or even rats (according to our google search inquiry).  Our fence on that garden is meant to keep rabbits and squirrels out.  However, our property butts up to woods that surround a tributary to a river, so it could be anything coming out of that area as well.  It's not deer.  We even have solar alarms around it, but not every single section is covered with an alarm. We now have two rolls of bendable  (very small ...

  A "first" time experience for us this year.  Cold infusion with our homegrown spearmint.  I have always brewed teas with fresh spearmint, and never even thought about a cold infusion.   I read, according to the Herbal Academy, that a cold infusion brings out a more crisp, cleaner, and sweeter mint tea.  Heating it brings out more bitterness.  Who knew?  I love learning new things. Spearmint Cold Infusion  ©  June 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  The rain brought me some dandelions.  Flowers were picked and are drying.   Once dry, I will be infusing an oil with them. The rain brought us more asparagus.  So happy about this.  You can see the fencing that someone mangled while mowing.  Grr. I need to get that fixed, and I need to weed it. New recipe tried.  I had one last box of organic pasta to use, and made a salad with arugula.  We have never (believe it or not), had arugula before.  The only change I made, was that I added a drained and rinsed can of chickpeas to the pasta water and cooled them with the pasta.  Oh, I used olive oil vs. avocado oil in the dressing too.  Recipe is is a Mediterranean pasta with arugula and feta, from Peas and Crayons (online). We liked this recipe.  I have a small bit of organic arugula planted this year.  We will see if it grows well here. Garden work is keeping me fit this summer. I have discovered the scuttle hoe and love ...

  I am still getting a few stalks of asparagus, and now a few dandelions each day.  I picked one stalk of asparagus on June 8th, and so far that was the last.  Best year for it yet.  I continue to collect dandelion flowers. The heat is here now.  It was in the upper 90's yesterday and we finally got a good downpour to give the gardens a good dose of Mother Nature.   The heat will heat up even more over the next two days, so I am praying all the new plants and flowers/seeds will be handling it well.  Not sure it will happen, but the forecast is to be in the lower 100's over the next two days. Soon to be back on the crochet hook . . . I have had another request for these hand crocheted baby washcloths.  I was actually ready to retire the yarn, finish the current crochet project request, but will keep the yarn. It will be a nice all-summer project, that is light weight to work on, during hot days.  The yarn is cotton, 2 ply, and a discontin...