Pioneer Woman at Heart

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...

I have no idea why I never thought of this, or not ever heard of this, but somehow I learned about it the other day.  They are fruit bags you put over your tree fruit, to keep birds and bugs off of them.  I just covered a lot of apples, but may get the ladder out there and get more covered up.  I am also hanging garlic around the bottom of the branches to keep deer and raccoons out of trees.   I'll be sure to let you know if they work.  They even have bags for your grapes.  I may have to put our grapes in next year.  The last ones were ruined, and I can't remember why.  Maybe a drought and we just couldn't keep up?  Anyway, I learned something new.

Sunday the heat started rolling in, along with thunderstorms and a lot of humidity.  Second picking of tomatoes brought us 6#.  Not much but tomatoes no less.   Humidity and heat rolled in on Monday and t he heat index reached a high of 98°F.   Today it will be the same.  Rain is in the forecast for Wednesday.  The porch is unbearable, so crochet time was indoors (again).   Hubby and I wandered out the pear trees.  They are loaded, but deer are bedding under one tree.  We also discovered that two other trees growing are producing apples.  Not enough to pick, but producing.  That was a happy discovery.  They were smaller over the years and they were planted before we moved here.  Thankfully, the pears are not ready to pick.   The treadmill and I are back in a relationship.  I have used it since the passing of our nephews.  It's been a rough time, but now I'm back on track as they say...

The last pear wine update was posted here ( November 9, 2016 ).  We had some wonderful taste tests, and eventually bottled it.  However, the bottles with corks popped some tops, and turned pink.   We didn't have enough bottles with screw caps, so much went bad.  However, to our delight, we kept one screw cap bottle.   We popped it open last night.  It was very good, but too much carbonation in it.  More like a high alcohol champagne, ha ha! We are so excited that we've learned so much already, and next time we will have another carboy and we'll let it sit longer with the bubble airlock on it.   We were so happy to enjoy that one single bottle, and now we are prepared to do any fruit wine.  Peach, cherry, any berry, grape, plum, apple....I may need more fruit trees, ha ha! We now have a supply of empty screw cap wine bottles too (thanks to my wine drinking friends and family).  Many wine companies and changing o...

It's a chilly 32°F here this morning.  Brrr.  We have not yet turned on the heat (nor burned wood).  Wood....let's not be reminded we are so far behind on that chore (gasp!). I recently used some pumpkin puree to try another new recipe - Pumpkin Ricotta Stuffed Shells (Country Living, online). I purchased my pasta shells.  Barilla is certified Non-Gmo.  If you prefer, you could use homemade lasagna noodles and roll them, slice and bake in the tomato sauce too (for a completely self-sufficient dinner, adding a garden veggie for a side, homemade rolls etc.).  The basil and sage came fresh from my herb garden.  I had just enough of each herb. We absolutely loved this dish, but to me it lacks a protein.  I think I'll have a side of meatballs or something with it next time, for us meat eaters.  Tuesday night I went to bed completely e-xh-aus-ted.  I spent the day baking and mashing sweet potatoes, amongst other chores. ...

The previous rain left things very wet outside, so the inside got the attention it needed all day Friday. I roasted 1 larger pie pumpkin for making a batch of pumpkin butter. I put 2 cups in the fridge, and the rest went into the freezer. I roasted 6 more pumpkins for pumpkin puree, and have one very tiny one went to the porch for fall decor.  The puree will be used for pumpkin pancakes/waffles, pumpkin muffins and bread, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin steel cut oats, pumpkin-sage macaroni, pumpkin pie . . .just anything. I roasted more whiskey-bacon pumpkin seeds as well.  They are so good.  I updated over on the recipe post.  I doubled the amount of pumpkin seeds. (Saturday sunrise, just before we enjoyed our breakfast on the porch) Saturday the weather warmed back up, so I high-tailed it to the tomato patch and starting yanking those pesky stakes and tomato plants (which surprisingly, some were still green and alive).  What we started...

Hubby told me last Tuesday, the he reserved a lift for Easter weekend. I was shocked. This is my best friend this morning - coffee.  We've been sleeping pretty good, and will be for a week or two yet.  Grab a cup of your favorite beverage.  This is a rather long post.

Some thing new for the hom estead - three rooster door pulls.  Love them!  They went on the ma ster bath c a binet doors. S omething harvested at the homestead - stin ging nett le.  I filled the dehydrator, but will need to cut more for "greens" for the free zer this spring.   I took a walk out to the fruit trees.  I am happy to report that all tre es have buds, and the peach tre e has t eeny tin y pink blo ssom s about to bloom.  I'm thr illed to see most of the fungus is gone on the p lum tree, so my homemade neem spray is w orking.  My el derberry trees actually have leaves on them already.  The grape plants are budding, and I will have to buy one grape pla nt to replace the one th at died last year.     We are still playing the car shu ffle.  Daughter's car is not fixed.  W e now know the problem, but the other problem is the labor involved.  It's a bout an 8 hour job with her engine....

This is how we began our pear wine - pears were seeded and stems removed.  We purchased a wine sieve bag to place in our 6.5 fermenter.  We had just enough pears to fill this half-way , which was about 23-24 lbs. of pears.  We added one cup of su gar f or every poun d of pears (approximately) , then poured boiling water over, with enough water above pears.

You-Tube has it's advantages.  Hubby and I watched a few videos, went out to the barn and got a broken hoe.....  ...cut out the bottom of a plastic bottle, and stapled the bottle to the handle.  Wa-la.  Not real fancy, but functional and free.  It works too.  Homemade fruit picker is no w off the "to buy -it" list. I woke up early and told Hubby, "I can't can a thing today - no onions ."  Which he quickly said at the crack of pre- sun -up, "I can run to the store real quick and get some for you ." Ha ha ha!  Oh that burst of energy he has now.  And no , we are still not canning, and no quick trip to the store .  We'll get them later, maybe from the farmstand, but not before 6am, ha ha!

Beets are finally filling up my freezer this fall.   We have a good supply of shredded zucchini, so the next ones went in the freezer sliced.  I know these sometimes thaw watery and softer, but I just drain the water and cook.  We use these mainly in our teriyaki dish over winter, but have added them to other casserole dishes and mixed vegetable sides.  I'll be honest, I'm surprised my zucchini is still producing.  It looks terrible right now.  I doubt I'll get much more, but would be blessed to get a few more. I purchased some large head garlic (organic) at the Farmer's Market, which is much easier to slice and dehydrate than my homegrown this year.  It's much smaller (in fact there were farmer's selling the smaller size for $.25/each as well).

I'm getting more peach jam put up, and for the first time, plum and apricot jam. All jams are reduced sugar.  These will go fast in my family.  I can utilize the plu m and apricot with other meals , not just PB and J's. The p lu m jam is delic ious!  So is the apricot! I'm  starting to put enough fresh plums, apricots and peaches in the freezer to enjoy all winter too.  I'm freez ing them until our our trees start suppl ying us an ample a mount.