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...

Pardon me, while I down coffee with the hopes to revive my tired self, and gather my scrupples.  One can easily forget the amount of physical labor it takes to plant a vegetable garden, until it's planting time again.  Wowzer.  Nothing like popping a few arnica capsules, after rubbing arnica salve into my knuckles and very sore hands, and all before heading to the garden.  Kicking myself for not dehydrating enough dandelions to make dandelion salve, but weather was against us this spring. Allergy season this year is the worst year ever.  My eyes feel like daggers stabbing them most days, and my nose is so dry, I have to use a spray with aloe to survive outdoor work.  The cotton wood is terrible, and looks like a fuzzy white blanket over the grass top.  Thank goodness for nettle tea for some relief.  However, it's not been enough.   One day we battled awful wind while gardening, and I developed a really bad earache.  I have not had a...

  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