Pioneer Woman at Heart

(although foggy, rain has stayed away for a few days here) The garden hoses have been pulled out of storage.  It's a task for sure.  We require about 200 feet or so of garden hose to water our garden. Our very first garden was pretty small.  Our farmhouse had zero water spigots outside.  None. We hauled water cans, and buckets in a wheeled cart to water it, and the garden flourished. We have also unpacked the garden tool bags I take out to the garden, watering cans, solar chargeable motion sensor do-hickies that send out a high pitched noise to deter the squirrels etc.  The first year we put them out, we never saw one squirrel until we took them out for the season.  Some stopped working, but most are still solar charging.    The gardens are tilled now, and one garden area fence is back in place.  Fencing has been acquired for the other garden (although it will not keep deer from jumping).  We have successfully planted all of the tomato p...

  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...

Last fall, I roasted the last of the mashed potato squash we grew in the garden, and froze them.  I thawed a container for a dinner, and it thawed very nicely.  Hardly any water in it, and I just gave it a good stir before reheating. Reheated with some salt and butter, and it tasted as good as freshly roasted mashed potato squash.  Yum!  I'm happy to report it worked out very nicely to roast, freeze, thaw and reheat.   We will be growing mashed potato squash again this year.  I'm so glad we discovered this squash. Mashed Potato Squash ~ Does it Freeze Well?   ©  May 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

                        (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...

  Mashed potato squash was a new garden treasure to grow last summer.  There is very little information about it online, and very little information if it freezes well.   We do not have a root cellar, so as of now, freezing our roasted squash is are best option at preserving it for the winter months. I roasted the last of our mashed potato squash, and allowed it to cool.  I scooped out the flesh and froze it.  I know it will thaw somewhat watery, as it is that way after roasting it.   The plan will be to mix it with pureed squash, add it to tomato sauce, or other dishes.  I am not sure if it will not be solid enough to enjoy on it's own, after thawing. I'll update as we thaw and use it in our meals.  I purposely waited to roast them, thinking it would help heat up this house. Mashed Potato Squash ~ Roasting and Freezing Trial #1   © January 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

A few asked how I restored my cast iron skillet, so this post is about that. It's been a long time since I had to restore cast iron, but I did some research online.  Never soak your cast iron more than 8 hours (some Youtube videos I found said to soak overnight, do not do that). I placed the pan in a large tote big enough to fit it.  I had the larger skillet so I used a plastic tote. I filled the tote 50/50 with water and white (5% acidity) vinegar.  The vinegar helps loosen the rust (if you pan is rusty like the one I was given).  Completely cover the pan with this mix.  I soaked my pan about one hour, then tested it with the scrubber, and soaked about a half hour more.   You'll have to wash out your tub or sink after soaking. There will be a residue of rust left behind.  I washed my tote outside, using the water hose. I have read that you can scrub the rust off with a waded up ball of foil, scrubbie, or steel wool. I had a few of these on hand, ...

Peel several cloves of garlic.  You will need a garlic mincer to do this. Line the dehydrator trays with parchment paper. Using the garlic mincer, mince the garlic onto the parchment paper.  I use the tip of a knife to spread the garlic out. Using the directions in your dehydrator guide book, dehydrate the minced garlic until crisp.  Once done, simply scrap the dried garlic off and store in an airtight glass jar. The color will change as it dries. Note:  I use this in my canned cowboy candy and any recipe that calls for minced (dry) garlic.

The process of this spring jelly is so intriguing.  It starts out the color of this (above). Wild Violet Jelly 2 cups freshly picked wild violets 2 cups of water, boiled Place violets in a quart canning jar and pour boiling water over it.  Seal with the canning lid, allow to cool, and refrigerate overnight. Day 2 Strain the violets from the liquid and add juice of one lemon or 3 Tbsp. of organic/non-gmo lemon juice.  Pour liquid into a steel pan and add 1 pkg. powdered pectin and bring to a boil. Add:  4 cups of sugar, bring to a boil and boil 1 minute. Power into sterilized jars, wipe rims, add lids and rims and place in canner pot to boil for 15 minutes.  (1/2 inch head space) Cool for 24 hours. Yield:  approx. 4 - 1/2 pint jars or 8 4oz. jars. (3rd time I made this, I squeezed the liquid from the violets, getting 1 more 1/2 pint jar of jelly. Note:  I break this up into 2 days, since it takes a bit of time to pick all those vio...

 Yesterday's sunrise.  Just beautiful! I took some time to pick up two five gallon buckets of our black walnuts.  They have pretty much fallen in the last few days here.  In fact, they were falling on me as I picked them up.  Black walnuts contain more protein than English walnuts and have a stronger flavor. The hulling and rinsing process is underway, but these will need to dry in the sun.  (click on "read more" to see the remainder of the post).

I thought the garden we planted two years ago, was the worst year, but I'm starting to feel it's this year's garden.  This photo was taken on July 17th.  Yesterday, I checked them, and they are still wet, and gone to rot. Warning:  This is a reality post.  The reality that self-sufficient/homesteading life is not always "peaches and cream." 

That's it.  I'm declaring it is spring now, which means "porch time" and my furniture is coming out of storage.  Even if I have to drag it out on the sled. The wood pile tells me so.  I should I say lack of a wood pile.  I did not even shovel the snow yesterday.  It is going to melt very soon anyway, and the scent on those sheets is so wonderful - natural "medication" for a good night's sleep.

Sunday was a full work day here - wood pellets restocked, wood cut, split and stacked, animal feed restocked, and  chicken coop cleaned.  Water jugs were also filled. Around here any type of storm can cut out our electricity, and we have yet to buy our generator.  That's next on the preparedness list. Tonight we are re-securing the snow fence, in anticipation of bad wind, rain and maybe snow.  We may even have a white Christmas this year. Although they are talking about "storms" they are also saying it is not the worst storm to come through.  So we are praying for good travel weather for friends and family.

Wednesday seemed like my "Monday" cleaning day.  I had a long list of to-do's, and we were out of chicken and goat feed to top it off.  As well as vinegar, a much needed agent for cleaning.  That meant two trips in two directions, or asking Hubby to help with the feed pick up. Before I could put pork chops in the crock pot,

Today, I start writing a novel in one month.  It's National Novel Writing Month.  I've been participating in this for a few years now.  One day, one of these quick, fired up novels, will make it to print.   Of course this month long writing does not suggest preparing ahead, so am starting with a blank slate this morning.

Yesterday morning there was a layer of fog over the fields.  Kind of pretty and perfect for a Halloween-ie type photo.   Walking to the mailbox I discovered

We earned two free nights at the campground.  Not knowing how the weather will be in October, we decided to go.  We still came home during the daytime (some of it anyway) to get work completed. We enjoyed the campfire again, on quiet cool evenings.

The nail polish on my nails is no longer there.  I'm back to the garden and more preserving again.  It will be a treat when I get the next break, but wood splitting is about to take over too. Hubby and I were at the Farmer's market a while back, and he told me he wanted to buy "Root beer" jelly.  I looked at him and cringed.  I really should be roasting more pie pumpkins, pulling more out of the garden, and so forth.  I knew he wanted me to make it vs. him buy it, so I did.   Well, I decided that if I made this, that there would be a consolation prize for me.  Hm.  Maybe a new purse perhaps?  I'll have to think on that and get back with Hubby on that "prize" but I needed to make the jelly first.  The first challenge was . . .

I did not go looking for this recipe.  I found it in a library book - Pearls of Wisdom, Tops, Shortcuts, and Recipes from a Country Home , by Deborah S. Tukua, who adapted their recipe from Countryside Magazine.  The actual color is more of a amber brown than the color it shows in the photo.

Sunday was a race against the weather.  Sporadic rain was expected, so we worked fast.  The garden looks small in the photo, but in the way, way back you can see Hubby is tilling up more space for more garden.  It's big.  We will be putting up another fence for the pinto beans and cucumbers this year.  Hubby's co-worker tried a fence for his cucumbers, and said it saves a ton of garden space to plant more of other garden goodies.

Although I am still coughing a bit, I donned my winter coat and boots, and finally shoveled out the clothesline.  As most folks driving by will turn their head, I had a nice time getting fresh air, listening to the birds sing, and enjoying the sunshine.  However, I probably should have stayed inside.