Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Sorry for the bad photos above.  My camera battery died, and I tried using photos off my phone.  My preferred option to stock up sweet potatoes, is freezing them.  Click here to see that post. I made beet chips way back in 2012, before I even had a mandolin or a dehydrator, and they were delicious!  Info on that post, CLICK HERE We tried "chips" this time in the dehydrator.  My dehydrator guide book stated 125°F.  They literally tasted just like sweet potatoes.  I highly recommend, that if you want snacking "chips" to season them with maybe garlic, cayenne or other spice/herb.  I used a tiny bit of organic avocado oil and salt.  They are bland.  So season it up if you want flavor. You can also dehydrate just the sweet potatoes, and grind them into powder for smoothies etc.  I have not done that, but I may try it in the fall when it's cooler out.

Blanched and froze 40 cups of sweet corn. Staked 20 more tomato plants. Froze 7 cups of shredded zucchini. Canned 4 more pints of Sweat Pickle Relish. Dug up 2 rows of red potatoes. Number of eggs we got in June: 121 Baked up some beet chips for the first time every.  Delicious!  A bit of olive oil and sea salt.  These were amazing.  Now I have to buy a mandolin.  Otherwise, these won't bake evenly and some will burn. I used Martha Stewart's recipe for reference on temperature etc. Spent days and days weeding out all the flower, herb, and vegetable/fruit gardens.  Weeds, weeds, and more weeds. Purchased 12 wooden fence posts for the new goat pen. The 4-1/2 pints of apricot-jalapeno jelly that I made are half gone already.  Hubby loves it so much I am down to 2 jars.  I hope I get more peppers after the next rain. I need to can more to sell. Planted 4 more loofah seeds.  I'm taking a chance and tryin...

Sorry if this is a boring post about beans, but I have a few new recipes to share - from "pile to file" keepers.  I've found my voice this month, so watch out for long posts.  I think I have blog-i-tis this October.  I can't blame the weather either.  It's been hot out again. The only other news, is that while I was sitting on the porch with leg up sipping my hot herbal tea yesterday, a car hit a deer just yards from our north drive.  The driver pulled over (a young girl), and the deer flopped around on the road for a few seconds, then got up and ran off.  The same area a car hit one early morning not long ago.  There is a corn field adjacent and north of our property.    Before We also got some barn siding removed last night.  We are tired folks.  Simply tired. We've been eating more beans than meat lately.  It helps the budget as well as our health.  These meals were over a period of time. ...

It's now cold weather handiwork, winter coat weather, but more so hurry-up-and-get-it-done outdoor work weather.  A recent conversation on the porch with Hubby got us talking.  We talked about what we would never do again as a homesteader - deal with black walnuts.   The other day workers were going up and down the country highway, and cutting back trees near the power lines.  Our black walnut tree is one of them.  I looked out the window and saw the guy on the ground throwing black walnuts at the guy in the bucket.  It gave me a chuckle.  I thought to myself, his hands are gonna be black when they drive off. I then remember my hands after peeling those walnuts.  Yeah, with two pairs of gloves, my hands burned for days after that.  The tree is getting old, so it may become firewood.  Who knows. Another thing I won't do ever again - buy straight run chickens.  We have a plethora of grasshoppers. I mean a plethora, so m...