Pioneer Woman at Heart

  A new "first time" for us was to make a cold infusion with cleavers.  It is a bonus weed that we get this time of year when we weed the flower beds and the vegetable garden.  Heck, I see it growing in the asparagus, so I'll be pulling more of it this weekend (in between rainfalls).  If you harvest wild medicinal weeds/plants, I would love your feedback on this.  I believe I dehydrated it many years ago, but it's best when harvested fresh.  I have only one friend who also harvests this, but sadly, she does not live very close to me. Side note: I made a face wash back in 2018 with cleavers, but never kept up with making it and using it over the years. Rain returns starting tonight, and on and off all weekend.  Woke up to 49°F, and again we have not planted the vegetable garden yet. Still on time, but slightly late if we can get it done soon.  However, we were unable to obtain organic sweet potato starts, so no sweet potatoes will be planted (as of...

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...

  The teaser 60-70°F days, we have been having, are bringing up sprouts of comfrey in my "weed" garden.  However, the rabbits (or something) is finding it tasty, so I best get to the hardware store and add more fencing to it.  We left a space, where we ran out of fencing last year, and completely forgot about it until this spring.   Comfrey is great to have on hand for medicinal needs, and yes, it is invasive, but the rabbits may keep it from getting too big, ha ha!   I make comfrey salve using this "weed" and I dehydrate it as well.  We've made numerous poultices with it over the years, and so glad I learned about it. Kitchen Down!   The current repairs are being done in the kitchen, so it is hindering any cooking or baking.  I will be glad when it is all done either way.  It's also helping push me to finish other projects in the mean time. I'm still planning a "coffee with me" meet up at our homestead, but not until we don'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...

                        (old photo of picked plantain, but I used both broad leaf and narrow-leafed plantain for the salve)   I completely forgot to share our newest addition to the medicine cabinet  - plantain salve.  It's a homemade drawing salve.  Plantain  (a weed that grows wild) is what saved me when I had a very nasty spider bite years ago.  I asked my husband to go outside and pick it, macerate it, and make a poultice.  I used it until I found a decent doctor (which was hard to do at the time). I used 1/2 cup infused oil (used grapeseed oil to infuse it), and 2 Tbsp. of beeswax.  Heat together until the beeswax is melted, pour into jars and cool completely.  You can add essential oils too, but add them after you take the melted oil/beeswax off the heat. By the way, before this was made, and I needed a drawing salve, I used a mix of homemade calendula oil, some store purchased...

Just when I thought I was in shape, I was not.  The very first day outside weeding reminded me of that, ha ha!  Boy, oh boy, you do get a work out outside.   Did anyone else venture out this month to start the garden process, clean up beds and such?  Did you slide out of bed, like a sloth the next morning, and drag yourself to the ever needed delightful coffee you preset to brew the night before? Only to find out you have more muscles than you thought?  And can barely walk, let alone lift your arms? Note:  The above was drafted up prior to my foot fracture ha ha!   The arrival of April has pushed all of our "projects" (indoor anyway) on the back burner for now.  It's that time of year to till the garden ( done ), start weeding and mulching flower beds and the herb garden ( in the works ), and planting the garden.   Our homegrown asapargus is starting to come up!  I have my husband on picking duty for now.  Yum!  No as...

  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....

Our new winter egg "basket" as we are in slower egg production, and this helps keep track of the oldest to newest egg. I made another new recipe by The Real Food Dietitians - Banana Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal.  It is very good, but so far I think my favorite is the pumpkin one. My pamper me moment - merino wool socks.  They were on sale for $2 at the farm store.  I could learn to knit my own socks, but I've put that off for so many years now.  You never know.  Until then, I bought these to keep my feet warm during this winter freeze. Entertainer for the Day   I don't know how I get into such conversations, but I do, and I did.  I not only entertained the dentist at my last appointment, but the dental assistant as well. It was freezing cold out, so the conversation started there. I was talking about tending the hens, which led to talking about dressing for the weather.  I mentioned that I always take my cell phone and a house key with me, wh...

  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 ...

  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.

  My comfrey bloomed for the first time ever. More bell flower blooms Household tip:  It took almost a dozen purchases, to find the sink strainer basket replacement that actually fit the sink.  I'm not kidding either.  I finally found one that fit, so the label with part number is being taped inside my cupboard under the kitchen sink.

Chives are in full bloom. Sage is about to bloom. Comfrey bloom for the first time ever. Now we are battling the lack of rain.  The ground is almost rock hard due to the temperature getting up to 91°F.

I made some lemon balm popsicles for when I get out of the garden all hot and sweaty.  They are so refreshing after becoming exhausted in the heat.  Recipe is online from Edible Wild Food. Friday we had rain, and it was told it would be heavy at times.   It was not.  We got rain, but not really enough. It was nice to have a change in my routine and get some indoor stuff done.  Not to mention free time to play with the yarn. It's perfect camping weather here this weekend.  To bad we can't go camping.  It's beautiful, but too cold at night for tomatoes and other plants.  The peas will love it.  Thankfully, I do not have my other plants in the ground yet.  We are to have cooler nights over the next 3 nights (40's, and it can stunt their growth). Yesterday morning I watched 2 coyotes in the wood across from our place, and this morning we watched deer crossing the road in two places.  

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.

Where is the best place (and cheapest) online to purchase a gallon of organic olive oil?  Thanks in advance.  I cook a lot with it, but need to make some things using it too. My tulips are starting to bloom, and our ornamental apple trees are in full bloom.  We have two tree starts we need to dig up and move.  They grow quickly and are pretty spring and fall.  I tried to buy more tulip bulbs early in the year, but there are none to be had.  I'll try again this fall and fall plant them. With rain arriving late, we decided to get the pea fence ready, tilled and cleaned up.  We didn't start our work until about 1pm due to the weather, and it was definitely a physical workout.  No problem here getting outside and exercise.  We were worn out.  We didn't plant 3/4ths of the garden last year due to massive rain and late planting, so we have to clean out dead weeds first (more work than normal).   Nothing has been planted ye...

Early photo from yesterday.  Purple dead nettle is up. Our rhubarb and asparagus is coming up too.