Pioneer Woman at Heart

  It's 45°F out this morning.  The rain may have quit for a while, but the cold nights remain.  May is that way most years.  It could rain, snow, be 90°F, or a drought.  You just never know. I could not believe I picked this yesterday.  My goodness.  What a grand year for our asparagus. It's been a very good month, although we still have a few days to go.  We would have liked to have more done, but sometimes we just have to look for the good in what we think is not good.  I often times, have to remind myself. The good?  Cleavers are still growing, as well as more asparagus coming up.  The herb garden is looking grand, although I do need warmer days to drop parsley seeds, basil and more.  Two cilantro plants, that self-seeded, are still doing pretty well. Cool May Nights ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart  

  Last year, we planted borage and rosemary in with the zucchini, yellow squash and other squash plants.  It was an attempt to deter the nasty squash bugs.  It for one, did not work to deter those bugs (did not even grow well enough to harvest anything from the plants either).   Two, it re-seeds itself very well, so don't plant it in your big vegetable garden like I did.  It's not spreading too badly this year, but I'm yanking it as I see it, and you know I hate to waste anything.... By the way, I'm actually seeing borage plants for sale this year. Borage tea?   Has anyone dehydrated or dried the borage flowers and leaves for a medicinal tea?  I'm not finding a lot of information in the resource books I have.  So far anyway.  I'm reading online that the tea from the plant, is good for reducing a fever and for reducing a bad cough.  Does anyone have any information, or experience, with borage used in this way? Borage for dinner?...

  I believe last year (how we did it) was the first year to do this with the woody ends from our spring asparagus.  I think I will try adding them to vegetable dips this year, or to meat and/or vegetable sauces.  It all depends on the amount of dehydrated ends we have this spring. We are still getting asparagus thankfully.  We got more rain, and it looks like we may get a few days break from it now. A lot is happening around here, and some work is still on hold, such as preparing the actual vegetable garden (much too wet). Dehydrated (and ground) Asparagus Ends ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Dehydrated some wild violets and leaves.  However, my 15+ year old smaller dehydrator (for small batch) died on me.  Good thing I did not turn it on when I ran out for errands.  Sheesh.  Any who, I'm already on the job for looking for a new smaller one.  I use it often for herb seasonings and small batch items like the violets. I have also been out in the flower beds, and they are filled with purple dead nettle.  I have chickweed too.  Hm.  Lots of ideas are spinning away. Ordered a bunch of recipe books from the library (again).  I will never learn, ha ha!  I'm on the hunt for a specific recipe we would like to have for grill out meals. Picked the first of our spring asparagus, and boy it feels so refreshing to get something from the garden again. More Wild Violets and Leaves ~ Asparagus ©  April 2026 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

(although foggy, rain has stayed away for a few days here) The garden hoses have been pulled out of storage.  It's a task for sure.  We require about 200 feet or so of garden hose to water our garden. Our very first garden was pretty small.  Our farmhouse had zero water spigots outside.  None. We hauled water cans, and buckets in a wheeled cart to water it, and the garden flourished. We have also unpacked the garden tool bags I take out to the garden, watering cans, solar chargeable motion sensor do-hickies that send out a high pitched noise to deter the squirrels etc.  The first year we put them out, we never saw one squirrel until we took them out for the season.  Some stopped working, but most are still solar charging.    The gardens are tilled now, and one garden area fence is back in place.  Fencing has been acquired for the other garden (although it will not keep deer from jumping).  We have successfully planted all of the tomato p...

We can't seem to get a break from the rain right now.  I checked on the garden.  It's flooded.  Like parts of it have 4 inches of standing water.  Woke up to a chilly 36°F outside.  So cold, I had to turn a heater on, and today I need to order propane (gulp!).  Way too cold for a garden to grow, so I am praying my already planted herbs and flowers survive this dip in temperature.  Wet and cold do not mix well for an abundant garden.  My feverfew seeds did not sprout at all, so I may need to re-buy them if we want a harvest this year. I have been bringing in about 2-3 asparagus a day lately.  We are at the end of harvest, but we keep getting a few a day. I'm already utilizing fresh herbs from the garden.  The cilantro seed sprouts are holding up in this colder weather too.  Same with the dill seeds I planted. About turnips . . . Turnips are the most under-rated cruciferous vegetable in my opinion.  Probably along the same path ...

  I had another long weekend, but productive.  My husband worked again (2 long 12 hour shifts), so I decided to tackle another big job while I could.  In reality, it was because we got more rain, and it's been raining every single day lately, so garden work was not happening anyway. I emptied the entire standing cupboard that holds my canning pot, freezer containers (as they empty), extra canning jars, and all things homesteading that don't have place anywhere else. A shelf had collapsed (it's the cheap wood type put-together-yourself type cabinet, but it works for now).   I purged the entire thing, cleaned it, then moved it from the wall and cleaned behind it and under it, moved it back, re-organized it and prayed it will hold together a few more years. I filled a box with items to take to the thrift store. We have had some cooler weather lately.  Woke up to 42°F this morning. Brrr!  Some evenings are below 50 degrees.  There is rain in the forec...

  I'm posting a bit late this morning.  I am so worn out and tired, and have not even planted the actual vegetable garden yet.  I got parsley planted in the herb garden, and I see my seeds that I planted for everything else are coming up nicely, other than feverfew. I brought in more asparagus.  The one good thing about all this rain.  The rest of the fencing was pulled, so we can till the garden now.  Our tiller is not working (of course it's not), and my husband's work hours don't give him the time to fix it.  I have no clue what's wrong with it.  All we know is that we need the garden tilled, and the tiller fixed.  We may have to resort to hiring someone this garden season. There were to be bad storms around midnight last night, so I ran around after garden work, laundry and did storm prep (in case we lose power).  If you have never had a property with a well, you won't know that if the power goes out, your well pump won't pump water ...

  (A Year of Positive Thinking, by Cundie Spiegel) Picked this in the rain.  So thankful for the harvest. I restocked our homemade condensed mushroom soup .  It is so good, it is so worth the time to make it and freeze it for quick access while cooking.  It's just shallots, fresh mushrooms, butter, a bit of flour, milk and vegetable broth, a bit of black pepper (organic/non-gmo ingredients) and that's it.  I always salt everything while cooking, so I do not add salt.  So good.  I would have had 5 "cans" in the freezer, but I ran out of shallots. Current library loot.  I am so far behind on reading these, and/or simply looking for what I am looking for, that it's crazy.  I have been doing "stuff" and rather busy, despite rainy days. Random Bits   ©  May 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

  We have had three days of rain (again).  I for once, was happy for it, as I had planted flowers, and had a new tree and bush to plant.  I have not gotten to the point of dragging out all of my garden hoses, so it was a relief for the sake of everything being "watered" (including the garlic and asparagus). The herb garden was ready for some rain too.  I have everything planted, other than buying a new parsley plant (cannot find my seeds).   I have a bit more weeding to do, but for the most part, all is doing nicely.   Oh, and it's been a terrible tick year here for us.  Although I make my own tick oil, and use it, I often forget.  I have come inside with a tick on me twice now.  Very unusual too.  I have a post it sticky note to remind me now (to apply the tick oil).  The wind can carry those buggers just about everywhere. The keeper of the herb garden.  He was sitting in the chives, and there are stray oregano plant...

  What a whirlwind of weather here.  We got more rain (yes, more) yesterday, and a lot of wind.  It's a really brisk 33°F this morning here, and now they are saying we may just get up to 60°F. I had high hopes the 72°F forecast for today would be correct.  Brr!  We need dry days to dry up the garden to till, plant and get on with this garden season.  My word. We are still enjoying stuffed bell peppers I froze last fall.  When you eat your garden goodies, it's hard to not want to grow a garden (although it was on the possible list to not grow one this year). Thanks to the massive amounts of rain, I picked more asparagus (in the rain, ha ha!).  I do see a few more coming up to enjoy.  I also see new baby shoots from seeds randomly dropping last year.  Yay to that. Let's talk herbs. . . My husband bought me a tea mix months ago, and I have been enjoying it, but the flavor is not very strong.  I plan to start dehydrating this Spring, an...

It's been raining here since last Thursday, so that makes 7 days of rain straight in a row.  Some days, partial day rain, and others full out thunderstorms. Some days it's been so cold we need jackets, so there has been no good time to work on the gardens (any of them).  A few days the rain has let up, and we got to see a teensy bit of sunlight, but most days have been misty, foggy, rainy, and gray skies.  Oh and colder.  I'm getting a wee bit concerned about planting the garden.  They posted a flood advisory Monday night. The asparagus patch is about to the end of the harvest season for us.  Although the rain brought up a few more stragglers for us to enjoy.   May started out with another new "first" for me.  I dehydrated the woody ends, leftover from the asparagus we recently prepared.  You can simply save them in the freezer for soup, but those bags can get buried easily.  Does anyone actually remember they are in the freezer? I do no...