Although fall is here, we had another odd warm day. I took advantage of it again, and washed all the towels and put them on the clothesline. There were lots of bugs again, but a good shake before tossing them in the basket did the job. The weather is all over the charts, making coop building the most difficult job (more like the job not getting done).
Pioneer Woman at Heart
One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!
One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
Adopted Motto
"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~
Friday, October 27, 2023
Another Warm Day ~ Trampled Chicken Run Fence ~ Have Dehydrated Mushrooms?
Thursday, October 5, 2023
Stocking Up ~ Freezing and Dehydrating ~ Herbs ~ Bag Holding Hack (if you have a jar lifter for canning)
I don't see the price of any culinary herbs and spices going down any time soon. I am busy putting my herbs into storage for winter/spring.
Bag Holding Hack: Use a jar lifter to hold your freezer bag in place while you snip away or fill your bag. I used a quart freezer bag in this photo. Worked great! I haven't tried this with heavier fillings, but if I do, I will update.
I dice and freeze my green onion and chives. These two do not dehydrate well. They just blow all over inside your dehydrator. Trust me on this, as I have tried it. I am freezing these two in freezer bags this year, due to freezer space. Otherwise, in the past I have used freezer containers.
I am dehydrating sage, yarrow, spearmint, peppermint, and more oregano, and thyme. The peppermint this year is limited, as the plant is not that big. I have my mints in pots this year. I have yet to convince my husband for a medicinal/wild growing weed garden somewhere around this homestead.
My cilantro has gone to seed, so I am saving the seed. My outdoor basil is still going strong, so I have taken a cutting for propagation, and the same with parsley. My dill has also gone to seed, so I am saving dill seed as well. Not one store in our area sold dill seed (for culinary uses). We had to travel 3 hours to the Amish area stores to find any. I will be sure to dry as much of our own as I can.
Mullein that grew up in a flower bed, but has not gone to seed/flower yet. I will harvest it before our fall frost arrives.
I have been making notes in our garden journal, on new herbs to grow next year. A few that I used to grow and for some reason just didn't get them planted, like Tarragon and Marjoram.
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Rosemary Propagation
I have never been good at keeping a rosemary plant alive during winter indoors. It will not last outdoors in our climate, so they are dug up and brought inside.
I took a cutting from my outdoor plant, and put it in water, changing the water daily. I forgot to write the initial start date, but....
Here it is in August, and it has new life showing. So happy! By the way, the top turned brown at the beginning of potting this, so I cut back on the water. I also used soil specified for cactus type plants. If I can keep it alive all winter, I can start my own plants in the spring again, and not have to buy them.
Here is a photo of the current growth. I'm so happy.I enjoyed doing this, considering you could do this to sell plants, or share with family/friends too. Maybe a barter? With this day and age, we need to all help each other. Everyone I know is broke right now, or struggling with the high prices.
I attempted to propagate a few more cuttings too, but I think the earlier in the season works much better. It's in it's growing stage then, so your success rate is better.
Thursday, June 22, 2023
Roasted Beet Foil Packets
I know the instructions on this recipe are on my blog somewhere, but my searching came up empty. Any way, I bought these organic beets at the store, but they are not the same as homegrown. Nothing is. Homegrown is the best.
I didn't measure. Dice trimmed and peeled beets, dice onion, and put on a oil sprayed piece of heavy duty foil (or toss in olive oil then place on foil). Sprinkle with thyme and sprigs of fresh rosemary from the herb garden. Wrap foil and pinch to seal it. I place my foil packets on a baking sheet.
400°F, 60 minutes or until beets are tender. Enjoy! We have made these on the grill too.
Roasted turkey with homemade garlic aioli sauce, and those delicious beets/onions.
Here's to praying we get the new raised beds built in time to fall plant beets. I am really gonna miss my spring planted beets this year.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Spearmint Iced Green Tea ~ Blooms
It was high time to make homemade spearmint iced tea. I love this stuff! My Mom hated it, but her Mom (Grandma), used to make it. Love, love, love it on a hot day. It's nice to have when I come in from the garden. Now that my husband is doing all the mowing after work, he too enjoys this delicious tea. I use organic green tea bags.
My popcorn is not doing that great this year. I may have planted it too late. I hope I did not waste garden space with a fail crop.
Here is what's going on in some of the flower beds.
The two "red" ones are actually two different colors. The last one is more of a burgundy.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Rest and Tea
Feeling bad I am schlepping myself around with a stuffy nose, and cough, my husband ordered me to "rest." Ha! Well I am trying. It's definitely not hard to do today. We are getting more rain, which we greatly need, and it looks very stormy outside. The kind of weather you want to curl up with a book, and light a candle.
I'm living on ginger/lemon tea, doses of mullein tincture and what not. I normally drink a nettle tea concoction for allergies, but did not get started on that early enough apparently. The recent smoke haze in the air did not help either. The air is much better now.
I have been doing a ridiculous amount of internet surfing, working on a color scheme for the next blanket (to use up yarn in my stash). I guess you can call it a stash. It is really yarn that was leftover from other projects, which I over bought I believe. Anyway, the one color scheme I really like, involves (gulp) buying yarn of a color I am out of.
So...I've been doing more searching for a color scheme of which I already have. So far, nothing is coming to mind. A large blanket project won't be started on until cooler weather, so I have all summer to work on that. I still have the other blanket to finish as well.
Anywho, it is hard for me to "not" be busy, but I can write lists, meal plan, read a book, sit and shred paperwork, and do low-energy jobs around here. It definitely is something I have to teach myself - rest. Like I said, the rain is helping me with that today.
The herb garden is springing back to life, other than my green onion. I am hoping with today's rain it will. Yesterday I noticed all the seeds I planted are starting to come up thankfully - basil, cilantro, parsley and dill.
Now, to go find an unfinished eye pillow project I started several years ago....it's around here somewhere.
Thursday, May 18, 2023
Meal Plan Fail ~ Purged more Craft Supplies ~ First Herbs to go in the Dehydrator
No gardening these past few days. It's been too cold, and my husband was called off to help a family member, so no more tilling either. I dumped all the grow bags, and every single one had holes in them. The plan is to replace them with raised beds.
I also harvested some chive flowers. I plan to make chive flower infused oil. Chive oil is tasty for frying potatoes, and for any dips. Did you know you can eat the flowers? I just read that. I have not tried them, but have any of you? Interesting for sure.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Blooms and more planting . . .
Friday, May 12, 2023
Egg Shells ~ Lilacs ~ Rain moves in ~ Yarrow uses?
I have been saving egg shells for the garden(s), and even when I shelled eggs for egg salad.
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Getting Outdoors ~ Doily Finished
The chicks are about 7 weeks old now, so they got a day of introduction to the hens. They say your chicks should be as large as the smallest hen, before putting them in the coop together. I had to laugh, as the hens were scared of the chicks and they were on the other side of the run fence ha ha!
Updates with the garden(s):
-planted about 100 cloves of garlic for spring planting (it was very difficult to locate organic garlic for spring planting too). As some of you read, voles ate our entire 80 fall planted cloves, so we moved the grow bags this year.
-started weeding the larger rose bed (this one is terrible)
-rhubarb is ready to harvest as well