Pioneer Woman at Heart

The rain brought us more bell peppers, and Anaheim peppers.  I picked these in my pajamas. I wanted to use some for breakfast.  More rain is in the forecast, with heavy downfalls predicted.  Possibly rain for the next three days.  Tomato plants are starting to die off, but we still have some tomatoes.  It's iffy on how many tomatoes we'll still get or how long they will last thru this rainy weekend. Goldenrod was harvested, and more calendula.  What am I making?  Goldenrod tincture, drying goldenrod for tea, drying calendula for infusing in oil, and drying some for tea or for making eye compresses.  I also started a sage tincture.   One bloom from the new Pacific Beauty Calendula I planted.  The others have not yet bloomed.  I planted several types this year, not only for medicinal reasons, but to add beauty to the flower beds as well. Believe it or not, we finally made fresh salsa.  We just got three more jalapenos from o...

  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 ...

  A few snippets from the flower beds.  It's not everything, but some beauties right now.  I took these on my phone, so the photos are not that great.  I have yet to replace my actual camera (soon I hope). One of our regular's from the herb garden - two types of sage. We have  had this one for over 20-some years, and moved it twice.  Love it!  It already bloomed this season. Added this sage about three years ago.  I believe it is called Greek Sage.  We love sage in homemade breakfast sausage, teas, medicinal teas, and tincture.  Sage tea (as well as ginger tea), is great for a sore throat. The heat index was not as bad yesterday, as the day before, but we did get up to 96°F.  All  of the seeds, that I replanted in the vegetable garden, are sprouting but a scant few.  It will be hot again today, and then possible rain moving back in (we need it too). I found a wild growing mullein plant growing in the yard, so I dug it...

  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 gatherin...

  More garden blooms.  I had a hard time getting the photos, as the lens steamed up from the humidity and heat. I dehydrated my first small batch of sage, using my smaller dehydrator.  I learned that if you cut back your sage too much (close to fall), it will die over winter.  I dehydrate in small batches over the summer to avoid killing my sage plant. We had another very hot and humid day.  Garden work was done early.  I needed to check the radishes and tie up more tomato plants. I got another new recipe off the pile.  It's a healthier breakfast bake using sweet potatoes vs. white potatoes.  I added some finely diced jalapenos to it.  I also used sage sausage vs. the sausage the recipe called for (no water, just cooked it first), and of course organic ingredients. It was very good, but the sweet potatoes released some liquid, so I would cook the onion and sweet potatoes before hand, and shorten the cook time.  Oh, and you can make this...

The morning sunrise keeps reminding me winter is coming. It's moving direction way too fast. The jalapenos are coming to an end.  I made a 4th batch of cowboy candy and I'm selling it.  We will not eat that much, but so thankful for having it for all my canning recipes, to put up in the freezer and use for meals.  I put more in the freezer for winter chili, baking, and other recipes (I use them a lot in my homemade breakfast meals). Sage made it's way into the dehydrator and I started a tincture for winter. Fresh Salsa.  Yum. I took a look at the turnips.  Not large, but not small.  I thinned them out a bit and will leave them in as long as I can to hopefully have a good harvest. Last night's dinner.  Chicken Tetrazzini (with a twist) using Jovial pasta, and baked bell pepper oven fries with homemade dip (the best ever, and I'm not a fan of panko).  The bell peppers were from the garden.  Recipe for the bell pepper fries ca...

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.

Remember all that lemon balm I harvested last summer?  Well, I made the infused oil with it, and got around to washing up containers and getting lip balm made. I used the same recipe (Mountain Rose Herbs blog) for Calendula / Shea butter, but swapped out the oil for lemon balm infused oil.  I prefer to use the metal tins, but summer brings motorcycle rides, and the tubes are smaller and easier to carry (and less messy on very hot days).  I ended up making a bit of both - tubes and metal tins. Something I learned - lemon balm prevents the breakout of cold sores.  I'll be giving this to someone to see if if will work as they state it does, and I'll be using it all summer. I had a bit of sausage, bell pepper and onion leftover from our homemade pizza's, so I whipped up a small batch of Sage sausage/egg muffins for breakfast.  I used jalapeno's from the freezer to add some zest to them too.  So good.  I'll be tweaking my recipe and hope to po...