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  

  My 20 year old garden sign gave me a chuckle.  It is sort of how we felt after all that rain here.  The sign is broken, and it will be replaced.   Flower beds are weeded, rose bushes trimmed and flowers planted.  Whew!    The vegetable garden?  Not planted.  It is still, even with this heat here, way too wet.  I managed to weed out the rhubarb plants, but I think I carried about a pound of wet mud on my muck boots out of the garden.   We are still getting a few straggler asparagus.  The rain God's gave us a lot more chive blossoms, so I started another chive vinegar, and this one is with organic red wine vinegar.  It'll be great for summer salads and more.  I think we use red wine vinegar more often, but we now have both infused with chives (white wine and red wine vinegar). There really is no excuse to be so far behind, but I finally (yes, finally) got all the last 11 granny squares sewn on to my crochet ...

  A blind date book gift, that I received from someone last December.  I'm finally opening it, and I have already used the pampering eye mask.  In fact, I've already been using the post-it page markers too.  I have no information about the book or author, but I did see it has a 3.88 rating from Goodreads.  I have yet to even open the book to read, but it fun opening it and all the goodies that came with it.  I'll be enjoying the tea soon too. No rain yesterday, nor today (so far), and no rain in sight, so we may be drying out.  The evenings are running about 49 degrees, so it's still cooler out some evenings. We enjoyed, what may have been the last of our asparagus harvest this season.  It's been a wonderful year for asparagus too.  There wasn't a large amount of the asparagus, so we grilled it with other vegetables. Other than the green onion, the herb garden is springing back to life with the recent rain.  Everything is growing in the ...

  It's a happy month for me.   Don't get me wrong, as things can go haywire on any given moment, but good things are happening. Back in 2015, I posted about some writing adventures.   At that time, it was 11 years ago. You can read about them (it's a short post) HERE .  It feels like I put writing to the pasture long before that year, but.... I used to freelance many years prior to that, but put it all aside to raise the kids, and run the household (one was in about 4-5 school sports and activities  - softball, basketball, you name it!).  They were all active in something - school plays, band, sports, etc.  In other words, we were a very active family, so I put my writing on hold.  It wasn't on purpose.  It just happened. Well, back when I had surgery last December, I decided to enter a poetry contest that was local.  I did not win the top prize, but my poem is printed in a book (have yet to pick it up).  Not long after th...

  Whoops.  I guess donating two books, instead of one, is a good thing too, ha ha!  I have been able to harvest chive blossoms, and it is rather early for that to happen.  You can read about how I did it HERE from last year.  We are only early on doing this by a few weeks, and all due to the rain this  year. While the chives are dehydrating, I picked more asparagus.  I will have to now replace my asparagus patch fence, and I will need to dig out a few wild raspberry plants the birds planted. What's new?  Well, I found a new houseplant to add to our home, and love it.  We have also planted a new apple tree, a new plum tree to replace the one that died, a new lilac bush, and one new hydrangea (also died over winter).  New landscaping edging was upgraded on one flower bed, and another is being worked on during dry days.   One volunteer cilantro plant, in the herb garden, survived the last frost.  One died.  One sage plan...

Regarding my recent sprained toe...  I unfolded each piece of gauze to prepare and make the poultices for my toe area. (looks like ants are chewing holes in the leaves) I harvested some comfrey from our "weed" garden, to make poultices.  I only had 2 x 2 gauze, but it worked for my toe.  I used my new smaller food processor this time, and it worked great (comfrey leaves, a bit of water, and flour {can use arrowroot, or whatever for a thickener}). The plant is springing up pretty well, and was large enough to get enough leaves cut for the poultices.  I used a freshly made poultice right away, and froze two more.  The frozen ones work to also reduce the swelling. I also used my homemade comfrey salve, and the bruising is very quickly healing, and pain was gone after day one of poultices.  Thankfully, it was a sprain and not a break. A strong thunderstorm, with rain and wind, moved into our area last night.  Only about half the mowing was completed before...

  In working on my home "apothecary" clean up, and re-organization, I found one lonely jar of dehydrated, wild picked stinging nettles.  I decided to grind them, and create a homemade herbal seasoning. To the seasonning, I brought in some dandelion greens and dehydrated those, and ground them as well.  I added that to the nettles, and added homemade garlic powder. Finally, I will be adding parsley and salt to the mix and using that for meals. I did not measure anything.  I just sort of eye-balled the amount I ground in even amounts, and in actuality, the salt could be left out.  I tend to salt lastly. It's my little herb seasoning experiment.  If we like the flavors, we may be trying it with more options - mint, thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, ginger etc. The rain continues here, and it's hit or miss with picking more wild violets,  wild violet leaves and dandelions. We had a really bad storm come through the area early evening, and of course we needed to...

  Brisk 14°F and high of 38°F.  I used my clothesline yesterday, but the wind was crazy.   We are seeing wild ramps on our walks lately. Planted:  Mullein (very hard to seed start, so we shall see) Harvested:  Green onions, Yarrow Purchased:  Flower seeds A small, removeable fence has been placed around the "weed" and herb garden.  Thankfully, I had the fencing, and did not have to purchase any.  Hopefully, it will keep the rabbits out of it, but I have seen a chipmunk who runs among the outdoors.  Ordered a few books and DVD's from the library inter-loan program.  Just doing my part to keep the library open, but also to use the free resources. Speaking of resources, you never know what freebie you can utilize, and one fell right into my lap last week.  More on that later.                  Finished this book.  As a result, I learned a few new fun facts.  Like the fact that ...

  We ended March with a high 77°F with an evening of thunderstorms.  We started April with temperatures in the low 30's, with a lot more rain. I've started my infused oil with horsetail.  I'm reading through my herbal books, watching Youtube videos and the like.  It's an herb/weed new to use.   I did not buy my horsetail online.  I purchased at an herbal health store.  However, the one store nearest us, does not carry it, and another apothecary does not grow it or carry it (40 minute drive).  We are very limited to access to stores or apothecaries with medicinal herbs, tea herbs, and the like.  It's frustrating, but in some cases, forces me to simply grow some of them myself.  It is depressing to not have any like-minded folks in our lives.  Most people we talk to about it, just laugh and act like it's all a waste of time or a joke. Speaking of Youtube, I'm watching several videos on spring wild violets right now (tinctures, te...

                                                  In 2024 I made our first yarrow salve, after learning more about the herb.  I have a lot of it growing here, and have used it many ways.  I'd have to go look into my notes, but I believe I used olive oil, or sweet almond oil. I have, in the past, pulled off some fresh leaves and rubbed it on my arms in a quick pinch to ward off the mosquitos while gardening (will be added to our homemade bug spray), and I have used it many times for a bloody nose (who knew?).  I read, sometime about 2 years ago, that one can simply put the fresh leaves in their nose to stop a nose bleed (have not tired that, but read it somewhere on an herbal blog or book). I infused oil, and whipped up some salve in 2024, and the most use over the last two years, has been for a bloody nose brought on by dry heat indoors over wi...

Our weather is warming up soon, or so they say anyway.  We are looking forward to sunny days again. We've obtained asparagus roots, and will expand our existing asparagus patch in the vegetable garden this spring.  We will not be planting anything squash related this year, to give the garden a "clean sweep" from squash bugs.   We are late, but seeds will be started for a few garden goodies, including a few for the herb garden (that are medicinal herbs). The next room to clean out, prior to giving it a planned new coat of paint, is a room where my canning supplies are stored.  I may be reducing the numbers in there.   I still have the supplies to can our favorite "Christmas" jelly, which did not happen.  Not sure if it will yet or not.   The winter has been a long winter, and not much blog content, here are a few fun freebies we snagged. Free bookmarks.  I absolutely love this one.  It was the last one at one of the area librari...

  The new year brings new beginnings.  It's a year of ending a few things as well.   Many of the gatherings this year were small.  Either sickness hit most, some didn't want to be around people, and some did not get together over the holidays.  Either way, I did not cook/bake for the gatherings, and that was actually nice for once. January brings winter weather.  The weather is doing what it does - wintering.  Wintering in a weird way too.  If I was traveling, it would be a very good month for travel.  The temperatures are warming between 50-60 degrees, and rain. (shallots and butter) (homemade condensed mushroom soup, prepared as equal to one can of soup, to freeze) We are seeing more stores closing as the new year rolls in, and we have also found out that our nearest grocery store will no longer sell shallots.  I use shallots and butter as my starting base when making homemade condensed mushroom soup (which I freeze, one containe...

  I tried another new crockpot recipe, and we loved it.   The only thing I discovered, is my crockpot "low" setting is pretty hot, and I can lower the cook time on this, and it lacks "color" due to the homemade basil pesto.  We think adding some red bell pepper next time would be nice.   Also, it did not make a lot.  It's about a 3-4 serving dish, but it ended up a 3 serving for us, ha ha.  I would double this for leftovers. What is it? Chicken with Zucchini Noodles and Basil Pesto Where is the recipe from?                           I prefer to cook my raw chicken separately, and not with other vegetables, when it comes to crockpot cooking.  It's just me.  I cooked the chicken the day before (in the crockpot), shredded it and cooled it (recipe called for chicken breast sliced). I simply added the chicken at the end of cooking, as well as grated parmesan cheese, because I fr...

  Organic lemon balm sprouting up in an indoor pot, for the first time ever.  I have not planted it indoors before, nor brought in a plant or portion of a plant.  It's being started from organic seeds. I brought in some chives and rosemary.  We'll see if I can master the ability to keep them both alive indoors this winter. Sage and Thyme from the herb garden (brought in before our first hard freeze):  dehydrated the thyme, but next year I think it would be useful to make a thyme tincture (for any medicinal reasons).  Do you make a thyme tincture?  If so, what do you keep it on hand to treat?  It totally slipped my mind this year. I dehydrated most of the sage, but used some fresh to start a tincture (this is great for sore throats when you don't want to/or can't make hot tea).  Just my experience with a sage tincture.  If you have other uses, please share.   I ground some ( a first for us ) of the sage and filled a re-purposed ...