Pioneer Woman at Heart

  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...

  The laundry has dried so much faster with the heat wave.  I love our solar dryer.  Free!  Smells great!  I get exercise. Wild black raspberries are on now.  I'm picking daily, and will use them for simply eating or making fruit smoothies for a cold lunch.  The best part?  It's free!  I forage for them, and some plants have been planted closer to the house by birds.  If there is an abundance, I will freeze some, but the lack of rain and heat wave may say otherwise. I received some free merlot heirloom lettuce seeds, so we are trying something new with this heat index skyrocketing - planting lettuce indoors.  I'll let you know how it turns out, or if it does well.   I decided to plant two kinds of lettuce, and a tray of microgreens.  If it all does well for our meals, I'll start more later this week. The mulberries are also on the trees, but they are not all ripe yet.  I did get a mix of berries a few days ago th...

  You may get a laugh out of this discovery, but it's a reminder to get your recipes out before you do early prep work.  I started a catnip infused oil earlier in May, thinking it was what I needed for my homemade bug spray.  It was not.   I then thought I used catnip oil for homemade tick repellent, and that was not it either. Having said that, I started a catnip tincture .  Good grief.  I started making the bug spray way back around 2015.   It works to repel bug bites, but if it's very hot out, you do need to re-apply it during your time outdoors. (photos from September of 2015, when I first made the bug repellent spray) The link for the online recipe no longer works, but the original recipe was from Mountain Rose Herbs.  They have changed the recipe and the title over three times since then.  It was first called Bug-Away Spray, then a Skeeter spray, and again changed after that.   I went searching for the link to share,...

I'm getting some odd jobs crossed off the to-do list lately.  One was to wash the bed cover and bottom sheet from the spare mattress upstairs, and to wash a quilt we took out of storage for a few overnight guests.  They were all dried on the clothesline and put back into storage until we get cracking on the upstairs repairs and updates. I'm sort of rotating from room to room, trying to get things cleaned up, organized, and back to normal, but some rooms like the utility room and the upstairs will take a lot of work yet. I'm working on a few lighting options for two other rooms.  We've already began the search, but it's not on the important list, so it's whenever we are out, sort of fun searching. I'm ordering items I need for the vegetable garden, but I do need a trip to the garden store soon.  I'm ready to tackle the flower beds as soon as the rain leaves this week. I started a small batch of rosehip oil, but I had to re-order my organic jojoba oil.  Sh...

Note: This was another resurrected draft post, so the photo is older, as well as the content, but sharing for those who may not know about plantain.  I have also dehydrated it for a medicinal tea.   I have ground plantain, and applied it to a wasp sting, and it removed the pain and redness within 20 minutes of applying the ground up plantain.  It truly is a wonderful weed to have available. I know plantain is great to add to some healing salves as well. Sharing the post today, as it was buried amongst the land of the blog drafts.  The timeline is a bit off, as we are just now nearing spring weeds, but finally sharing.  The blogpost prior shows a comfrey poultice .  Apparently, I never took a photo of the plantain poultices I froze. ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ Plantain has finally been harvested.  I allow some to grow in my flower beds too. It grows wild here. I made several poultices, and have put them into my freezer for safe keep...

  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....

  I've been keeping an eye out for spring wild violets.  They make the most delicious jelly, and the color is so pretty (and different, which makes it great for gifting).   Rain continues here, so we may see wild violets earlier, but with snow in the forecast for today, we may not see them until next month. Are you seeing wild violets yet? If you have wild violets growing, or you are able to forage for them, you can read about the first time (May 2, 2018 is the day I picked the violets) I made this jelly on this blogpost (link) .  It's not only a delicious and beautiful jelly, it smells wonderful while you are making it.  The next year I canned it, I used the 4 oz jars for gifting.  You do need to pack your cups when measuring the violets.  The less you have, the lighter the color and less of flavor.   (photo from The Crochet Crowd - they are currently working up a pattern/diagram) It's been so refreshing to walk into our living room and...

I resurrected a blog draft from April of 2019.  The only thing in the draft was a photo of wild growing stinging nettle.  The only thing I can think, is maybe I was sharing what it looked like? Always do your research before foraging for this weed.  You can also buddy up with someone who is familiar with foraging and learn that way too. I know I dehydrated some in the past for teas, and did you know that if you blanch them, you can ice bath them and freeze them for eating in future meals? You do need to have very thick protective gloves on to harvest this medicinal weed .  It's prickly spines will leave a nasty, itchy rash on you if you do not.  Just ask my husband.  He was mowing in shorts one time, and brushed against some growing here on the property.  I had to lather him in chickweed salve. Chickweed is another weed to talk about when it arrives this spring/summer. I wrote up a post about how I made a tea infusion for hair and nail heal...

  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.

I'm back!  I have discovered how much I can get weeded when we have no internet, ha ha!  Woke up to no internet on Wednesday morning.  Five phone calls later we were in town getting a new modem, only to come home and not have internet.  Again.   I got a text message yesterday that said "your system was restored etc."  It was not.  Ten minutes later I get a phone call to make an appt. for this coming Sat.  Last night the dogs alerted us and we find our internet provider in our driveway.  Hubby ran out to see what was going on.  He said something happened with their "system" and it sent a power surge to many homes knocking out their internet (hm?).  He was sending a ping to the modem.  Internet is back on finally. Got another text message.  It was correct this time, and to reply to cancel our Sat. appt.  Sigh.  Anyway, glad it's back on, but it made me realize that if we all went out, our quick and easy commun...

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.

When ever I read something new about a weed I harvest, I give it a try if I can.  The season for cleavers are over for us, but I wanted to share this. I made a tea with cleavers . I just made sort of an infusion in a pint canning jar, strained it and put it in the fridge.    Dip your washcloth into the tea and rinse your face with the tea solution at room temperature (or cold).  Cleavers at as a skin tightener, so in reality, reduces wrinkles and lifts up the skin naturally. Some people may have a bad reaction to this facial wash, so try a small area at first.  If you use fresh cleavers in you tea (not recommended for this), you have greater chance a having a skin reaction. I used this tea for 2 straight weeks and feel and see a difference.  I also used it cold on my face, and it felt great in the heat of summer.

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.  ...

Although a bit late for morel mushrooms here, I'm sharing a recipe I found you all may like.  I hope to try it next spring.  I'd probably use ground organic oats with some Italian herbs, or grind up some homemade "croutons" for this recipe.

Yesterday I enjoyed a nettle smoothie.  I used blueberries and bananas for the fruit, some homemade yogurt, ice, and organic pomegranate juice.  Nettles are loaded with vitamin A and C, calcium, potassium, iron and a bit of protein.  Very low in calories too. I'm trying to get as many weeds put up before the farmers start spraying too.

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.