What's Growing?

 

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 jar.  It will be used mostly for mixing up chicken breakfast sausage patties (or turkey).  I will be finding out if it stays pretty good in the ground form or not.  It will make breakfast preparations a bit easier for me.

What's Growing?  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Fall is Here

 It's officially "fall" here now.  Woke up to 40°F and boy it is very chilly.  The leaves are turning even more, and more are falling.  The tomatoes are done for the garden season too.

5 pints of Lemony-Basil Tomato Soup was canned.  I normally get about 2-3 batches canned, but not this year.  I am thankful for what we did get.  The cold weather has started to diminish the amount of herbs we are getting from the herb garden now.

There are other goals now that the tomatoes are all processed. We will need to pull everything left in the garden(s), and do other prep work to put them to "bed" for the season. 

I still have apples to process, but they are in the fridge for now.  I need to get caught up with other work and I have a strainer full of garden bell peppers to dice and freeze.

I totally forgot that I planted several rosemary plants inside the garden this year, so I will need to process those (have no plans to try for the umpteenth time to keep them alive all winter indoors).

I now have a container labeled "canning" that holds old towels, and hot pads, and one apron.  It is now where I will be keeping all those items involved with canning.  They will not be taking up space in my kitchen, and I can grab the container when needed.  If you have canned with tomatoes or anything that stains or splatters, you'd understand why I would only use the older items to can with.  

In the meantime, I am writing up a plan for winter.

Fall is Here  ©  October 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Kitchen Catastrophe ~ Medicinal and Winter Prep ~ Playing with Herbs ~ Preserving Lemons Question

 We have had non-stop problems with the pipes leaking under the kitchen sink.  When the kids lived here, they would shove stuff under the sink and bump the pipes, hence the leaks.  No kids, and now we have a leak?  I took everything out, and took assessments.  Not to mention, clean everything off, and wipe the cupboard dry.  Not the worst kitchen catastrophe, but I use my sink several times a day.

Once the pipes are all fixed, I will be replacing the cheap dollar store placemats I had in there, with this . . .

It's washable too!  If we spring another leak, at least it will protect the wood.  The absorbent fabric is USA made.  I found it on Amazon.  I'm not sure if stores have this or not.  I wasn't very patient for looking for a better solution (for keeping things dry).

I am late to the game so to speak.  I got one jar of Four Thieves started.

I got about 3 more trays dehydrated of sage, more thyme, and rosemary.

I am gathering a shopping list to make Fire Cider too, but my recipe in the book I have does not say how to properly store it after you add the honey and cayenne.  It's been many years since I have made it, and I cannot remember?  I just want to make sure I have a variety of "medicinals" on hand this winter/spring.

Is there a way to keep lemons fresh longer, or preserving them?  I like to have lemons and limes on hand all winter, but I am wondering about a tried and true method to preserving them.  Juice them and freeze the zest and juice?  Like freeze the juice in an ice cube tray perhaps?  

Another Warm Day ~ Trampled Chicken Run Fence ~ Have Dehydrated Mushrooms?

 

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).

Woke up to find that a deer had trampled my chicken run fence.  Looks like it got in by jumping the fence, and could not get out, so it took down the other side. By the size of the hoof prints left behind, it was a small one. I finagled the fence back up, but it won't last long.  Deer season has been very bad this year. 

I took advantage of one rainy day.  I caught up with shredding bills, and started unpacking more boxes from the renovations over the last year and a half.  We will probably be unpacking, sorting and purging for another year around here, ha ha!

I had enough potting soil to dig up, and bring in one of my rosemary plants.  I'll attempt the other one after I buy more potting soil.

Need ideas for your dehydrated mushrooms?  Well, there are so many ideas you can use them for, and I love to be able to just toss them in and let the crock pot do it's magic.  The last time I made this recipe was in 2020.  I was shocked that I had not made it again.  Well, I made it again, and the funny thing is, I roasted asparagus, just like I did back in 2020 (see blogpost).  Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole.

Rosemary Roasted Asparagus - I simply drizzle my asparagus with olive oil, add salt and pepper, then grind the dried rosemary a bit and toss over the asparagus.  I roast at 400°F, and bake for 15-20 minutes (depending on how thick it is).

Note:  Next time I will add more garlic powder to the chicken dinner.  I may also just mince fresh garlic and add it to the shallot and celery prior to adding the rest.  It lacks flavor.

I've been baking us this breakfast a lot lately.  It's just so easy to mix together and bakes while I'm zipping around doing laundry or house work.  Cheddar and Chile Egg Casserole.

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....

It began to get one root in June.  That root took off, and eventually it fell off, and then I checked again, and it had 4 roots.  

I planted it indoors. Here's to hoping I can keep it alive all winter, and not have to buy new plants in the spring.  I figured, if I have a few extra plants, I have a better chance ha ha!

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.

Memory Boost

I keep reading that smelling rosemary will boost your memory.  I need to hang some from a hat and sniff it all day.  I've been on the hunt for things I can't find lately.  Besides, rosemary can't be planted just yet, so there goes that theory.

I went in search for a business card.  I literally emptied 6 or 7 purses to search for it, cleaning them all out for about 2 hours.  Later, I found the card in my jewelry box.  

I also went on a hunt for a flash drive.  Cleaned my entire dresser and other stuff.  Never found it.  It'll show up when I clean something else, ha ha!  I used another, loading umpteen photos to it for 2-3 hours, only to hear Hubby change his mind.  "Don't bother with it, it's just one thing to mess with at the party."  Ugh....

The photos were to be printed and put up on a board for the anniversary party.  I agreed.  No board.  

I couldn't find a store that sold photo corners anyway, and Hobby Lobby closed in the closer town.

No other interesting business going on here but rain.  Rain, rain and more rain.  Weather says it will be up to 77°F today, but rain at the exact time the weather peeks.  I'm not getting that septic dug, the garden remains saturated, and I'm stir crazy.  I'll have to dig into some sort of deep cleaning again today.  At least all my purses are cleaned out now.  In that process, I found $19.00.  I earned a little reward for that cleaning job.

Tidbits ~ Herbed Omelets or Scrambled Eggs

Hubby and I were up at 5am this morning.  Had coffee on the porch before he left for work and I made him a sweet potato (more like an egg hash) burrito.  Both of us were up since about 3am.

I had to laugh this morning.  He asked me to open the door so he could carry his lunch, mug of coffee and half eaten burrito out to the car (truck is still down).  I looked down and he had socks and slippers on, ha ha ha ha!  I had to tell him, "um, hun? You don't have your shoes on."  We laughed and laughed.

It's operation homestead clean up again today.  I was abandoned by all kiddos, so I didn't have any help, but today I will.  More spider traps are going in place again too.

I don't see that it even rained last night, so we'll dig out more porch furniture.  I put a few pieces out yesterday, but golly, there is more to tidy up than I thought.

Progress?

I can't tell if we are making progress indoors, but I am making progress outdoors.  I spent the entire morning watering every single thing.  No rain in the forecast, and now no rain at all for a while.  Sigh.  

I picked some radishes that I enjoyed raw after that, and shared one with the now graduated, vegetarian daughter.  She doesn't like raw radishes, ha ha!  

Random Tidbits ~ Fruit Trees ~ Car Shuffle ~ Peas, Bacon and Prosecco

Something new for the homestead - three rooster door pulls.  Love them!  They went on the master bath cabinet doors.

Something harvested at the homestead - stinging nettle.  I filled the dehydrator, but will need to cut more for "greens" for the freezer this spring.  

I took a walk out to the fruit trees.  I am happy to report that all trees have buds, and the peach tree has teeny tiny pink blossoms about to bloom.  I'm thrilled to see most of the fungus is gone on the plum tree, so my homemade neem spray is working.  My elderberry trees actually have leaves on them already.  The grape plants are budding, and I will have to buy one grape plant to replace the one that died last year.   

We are still playing the car shuffle.  Daughter's car is not fixed.  We now know the problem, but the other problem is the labor involved.  It's about an 8 hour job with her engine.  We got one quote of $800 or $900.00.  We then located another person who might do it, and they did not want to mess with it.  Finally, we found one other person, and hope we can finally put an end to this car shuffle.  I can't run to the store for stamps, chicken feed, etc. And some folks in this house have bad memory (not saying who, ha ha!). Although Vet-Tech-Daughter texted me and asked if she could pick anything up for me.  That was nice of her.

Update on the car shuttle.  I wrote this post last night, but Hubby worked over, so he never got home until after 8pm.  He rolled in with a flat tire, in the pouring down rain.  And, the guy called him back about Daughter's car  -  estimate $1,000.00 (more problems than we thought).  He's calling around for a new engine.  Daughter just paid off her car too.  Sigh.....the kids that have moved out have the other half of our garage filled.  Yeah, so changing a tire isn't going to happen in the rain.  And Daughter has exams and is driving my car.
 

Before roasting

After roasting

. . .using up a bit of last year's rosemary.  I love to cook with it.  It smells like a real Christmas tree and that makes me happy.

I made Giada's (recipe is online) Peas, bacon and Prosecco (Italian white wine).  I loved it.  Just one more way to cook my peas.

And who doesn't want to try a new wine with dinner?  

 

 Pork chops with homemade condensed mushroom soup. Mmmmm!