The one on the left - made in China, thinner, longer, same weight. The one on the right, USA grown cotton, made in Canada, thicker cotton yarn. Note: both labels still say the same Canadian address, but the one on the left says "Made in China."
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.
"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~
I mentioned making a new "medicinal" and here it is . . .
Garlic Honey. You fill your jar about halfway with cloves of garlic (instructions say add how many you want on most that I have read), fill the jar with raw honey and cap it. You have to burp the jar daily for about 2 weeks. Some instructions say to flip the jar each day to coat the garlic with the honey.
Need a boost? Take some honey. Feeling sick? Eat the garlic.
I'll let you know if this was worth making or not. Raw honey is not cheap around here. Have you made and utilized garlic honey? I would love to hear your feedback on it. I'm late on getting winter medicinals made, but back at it now.
Speaking of medicine and illnesses, we did have covid. We are finally back to feeling somewhat "normal." There were employees going to work with covid, and not staying home, so the spread continued after my husband stayed home. I guess these people were not showing many signs, but enough to know they should have stayed home.
Moving on to some chit chat . . .
We discovered a butcher with non-gmo/free range/no antibiotics within a 2 1/2 hour drive from our homestead. We picked up a turkey tenderloin, 1 # sausage, 1 # ground beef, and a slice of smoked ham.
We have already tasted the turkey and it was delicious! We are talking a real turkey tenderloin. Not that stuff at the grocery store they pump with sodium.
We have also tried the sausage. It does contain brown sugar, but it is not anywhere as sweet as what you buy in grocery stores, and it tastes almost like they smoked the meat for it. We have also now tried the ground beef by grilling burgers. The ham will be part of today's breakfast. We will be taking a cooler back before winter, and stocking up.
It's a small locally owned business in the Amish community. They only accept cash/check, and are closed on Sunday. We are looking forward to a trip to re-stock now. We may try other cuts of their meats as well. They do cut their bacon thick, which we are not a fan of (thick cut), but we my try it after another trip there.
I'll admit, the cooler weather has been nice lately. We've had to turn a few heaters on too. The rain is moving in, and for several days.
If you blinked, you would have literally missed this beautiful sky Monday morning. It was there one minute, and gone the next. I was lucky to get the camera in time.
Dehydrate according to you dehydrator instructions. I have a small coffee grinder I used for grinding herbs, and I when these are dry, I grind them up, and pour them into a recycled spice jar and label.
It's a great way to use up all those leftover hot peppers in your garden. You could freeze them too, but I find that drying them and grinding them, makes a nice spice flavor to add to meals.
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.
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.
Something I learned about preserving apples. . .
You can freeze them! I'm so excited to find this out. Am I the last to know this method? If I knew, I have totally forgotten. You can find instructions at Freezing Apples.