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

  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 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...

  Although 18°F early morning, and only in the 50's, the wild violets are making an appearance after a very long winter.  We love homemade wild violet jelly , but I have other possibilities this Spring. Wild Violets ©  April 2026 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

  I had a request to share the final wild violet jelly after it was processed and made, and I am finally getting the photos together to share that.   I apologize for the delay. 2 cups of wild violets with 2 cups of boiling water poured over them to infuse).  I was told to let it sit up to 24 hours, but I have let my infusion stay in the fridge after that for up to 3 days.  Strain the flowers from the liquid. Add juice of one organic lemon.  The mixture turns from a blue-ish color to a more pink color. Add the liquid to a pot on the stove, and add one box of powdered pectin.  Stir and bring to a boil. Don't forget to get canning pot ready and prepare jars and lids. Once it comes to a boil, add 4 cups of sugar and bring to a hard boil for 1 minute. Fill jars with 1/4 inch head space, wipe rims, add lids and I put my jars in a water bath for 15 minutes.  The recipe I was shared, did not have a water bath time, but most jelly recipes say 10 minutes. T...

  Any foragers here?  I have a few reference books, but zero information in them in regards to if Purple Dead Nettle and Henbit both have the same nutrition/medicinal benefits to the body.  Anyone? I know, it's crazy question, and there are not many homesteading blogs still blogging anymore these days. Spring rain is great for a lot of things, but it is always the reason we get stuff planted so late.  The gardens are soaking wet, and this is what most of the vegetable gardens look like.  Not kidding.  They are too big to cover for winter.  We use a lot of space.  They are full of purple dead nettle and chickweed. The last few warmer days should start to dry up the gardens for us. I have added spring chickweed to salads and other meals in the past, but according to my blog (and other notes), we have not yet tasted purple dead nettle. Foraging was pretty easy (just look at the above photo, ha ha!). I did a lot of reading, and yes, I have a few forag...

  I've narrowed down my draft blogposts.  I went from 80-some down to 38.  I have resurrected another draft.  The odd part, is that I made this salve years ago, and never posted this draft.  I have no idea why I didn't.  It was drafted up, but the date is not showing up. All I know is that this was the 2nd version of comfrey salve and I like it much better.   You can make comfrey salve a few different ways.  You can check recipes in library books or on the worldwide web too.  Many vary, but I have been making salves for a while, so I  know how thick I want it.   The first recipe I attempted created a very hard salve.  It was too hard to even use.  I was a beginner salve maker at that point. You can also use an oil of your preference for making the infused comfrey oil prior to your salve making.  I, for the most part, use olive oil, but I have used grapeseed and jojoba oils, depending on what I am making them for....

  The wild black raspberries are on early this year.  They are small, but tasty.   I have a lot of plantain in the flower beds, and I am happy to say I have a wild growing mullein plant again.  So happy for that. The heat if finally letting up a bit, but no sign of rain. My husband took the truck to work the other day, so he could get the gas can refilled.  A deer jumped out of the ditch and smashed into the side of the truck.  I'm still waiting on the collision repair guy to call so I can take the truck in for repairs. I sure hope it doesn't take a year to get an appointment. I finally baked us a chocolate angel food cake.  It's good and light, but there is not much chocolate flavor to it.  I don't get to make one very often, but it's a nice light dessert for this hot weather.

Mullein planted in a pot last year and survived winter, but it's small. Mullein that popped up in a bed close to the house, along with burdock.  Big difference in size.  I think this bed will be my weed bed now, aside from the mints.  I need a bed in the ground somewhere for those. Burdock.  I never planted this in a pot, as it grows wild all over the place.

One bonus from all this rain and recent heat wave, is that the weeds are galore.  Edible weeds - purslane. Although this is wonderful fresh, I'm stocking up as much as I can for winter soups and frittatas. I steam it for a few minutes, and followed the directions found at Mother Earth News online page (regarding harvesting purslane). I cooled it per their instructions as well, to not wash off the vitamins and minerals - filling a metal bowl with ice water, putting an empty one in the ice water, and cooling the steamed purslane.

To make homemade cake flour, simply remove 2 Tbsp. from each cup needed, and  then add 2 Tbsp. of organic non-gmo corn starch.   Sift many times before using. You can buy organic powdered sugar from health stores.  You need powdered sugar for this recipe. Serviceberry Drop Cookies ( recipe adapted form "How to Prepare Common Wild Foods" by Darcy Williamson) 1/2 cup organic butter, softened 1 1/3 cups organic powdered sugar 2 farm fresh eggs 1/2 tsp. homemade vanilla 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. cake flour (see instructions at top) 1/2 cup dried serviceberries Soak dried serviceberries in 1/2 cup boiling water for about 10 minutes.  Drain. Beat butter until creamy.  Slowly add sugar until it's fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Gently add flour, and don't over mix.  Stir in serviceberries.  Drop onto cold cookie sheet, about 4 inches apart (about 1 tsp. size drops).  Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.  ...

It's a very short post today folks.  So much to do, so little time.  I am so far behind on our vegetable/fruit garden it's not even funny. Although nothing homesteady (is that even a word?) in this post, here goes. . . The sunrise was just beautiful this morning.  Although both Hubby and are sleep deprived, we sipped hot coffee on the porch.  We've see deer, and today (oh joy) a fox.  We've also had a visit more than once from our hummingbird and a few woodpeckers.

Spring weeds are here now.  I wonderful time to gather, eat,  and store. I put some weed pesto in the freezer already.  I weeded about 95% of my herb garden, and all of the weeds, aside from the little bit of grass, were edible (or useful for natural remedies). I've had quite a few experiences with dandelion since I first made dandelion jelly.  Over the years, I have made dandelion bread (which we absolutely love), dried dandelion for tea purposes, blanched and froze dandelion for meals (we love dandelion pesto), dried the root for a coffee substitute and medicinal purposes, and now I am making poultices. Dandelion poultices, can be used to treat eczema, skin rashes, boils, and to reduce itchy skin (helps with itchy poison ivy).  I am putting these poultices together in the freezer, like I do with comfrey and plantain.  There is nothing more comforting than a cold poultice in the summer, for an itchy rash too. I am also putting cleave...

I canned more wild violet jelly first thing after my work out, and checked the weather.  Were you wondering if our rain stopped yet?  Well I was. We got more rain, but I had a break in the day to get outside.  Oye. It's wet out there, but after checking the asparagus and garden (for damage), I high tailed it to the flower beds.  I could spend a week out there, plus the herb garden. I have a plan for the wettest part of my vegetable garden.  Updates to follow if it works out. I felt like the "If you give a Mom a Muffin" but with the weeds yesterday.  One thing just led to another. I started weeding flower beds, and found several ornamental apple trees growing in it.  I dug up two and transplanted them.  I went back to weeding, but after pulling all the cleavers, it was almost a day with the cleavers.  I filled my dehydrator with them, and had a bit leftover. Knowing our family motto, that has been on this blog for years now, y...

My homestead has a somewhat good amount of wild violets.   I was itching to pick some wild purple violets, for my "new" jelly to try this year.  I've never made it and we had a very busy weekend.  So...I picked the violets....

Warning....not good news just yet. First, Hubby isn't off night shift after all.  A call came, and he's on 3rd for a few more nights (maybe).   Second,

I can't really say I felt like we had a weekend here.  Hubby worked all through the weekend, and with the continued 3rd shift, I am totally off sync.   We had a family baby shower yesterday, and that was interesting.  Hubby got home at 8:30am-ish, and went to bed.  He got up at 2:15pm, and we went to the baby shower late, then left early to come back so he could nap for one hour before leaving for work again.  He insisted we be with his family at this time, and I truly felt they needed it too.  Us too. However, we hit a big snaf-foo!  On the way home in his truck, because my car still has a falt tire since last Wednesday (he hit something on the way home, and with the funeral and 2 days of 100% rain, it was put on the back burner), his brakes started going out on us.  Thankfully our daughter wasn't driving.  He got us home by downshifting, but he needed a vehicle to get to work.

 Yesterday's sunrise.  Just beautiful! I took some time to pick up two five gallon buckets of our black walnuts.  They have pretty much fallen in the last few days here.  In fact, they were falling on me as I picked them up.  Black walnuts contain more protein than English walnuts and have a stronger flavor. The hulling and rinsing process is underway, but these will need to dry in the sun.  (click on "read more" to see the remainder of the post).

I couldn't hold myself back any longer.   I mean why not?  Hubby is still fixing his truck, so the tree(s) still stands. I found this recipe by purchasing a discarded library book at a library book sale. You never know what you'll find at one. And a note:  I do not go looking for recipes like this one, they seem to find me.  And I really enjoy making them, and trying them.  I've been making this one for four years now.

We had pretty good day in the garden, and I am kind of glad we did not get the weeds out between the smaller pepper plans, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, nor the carrots.   It's raining again, but today's forecast is 100% rain, heavy rain, windy, flood warnings, and flash flood warnings.  We are to get 1-5 inches of water.  Maybe the weeds will help protect the plants from the wind today? I also successfully weeded half of the herb garden.  The green onions look terrible this time of year, but I do see little sprouts forming already.   I picked more berries, cut some oregano, and had a daughter shell peas for me, and clean off the dried thyme.  Overall, it was a pretty good day, all things weather-wise, considered.