Need Help Finding Organic Music Garlic!

 I normally fall plant our garlic, but once again it was eaten over winter (all 80 cloves!!!), and we believe it's the work of voles.

I need to spring plant garlic now, and I cannot, for the life of me find anyone selling organic music garlic seed for spring planting.  I can only find "fall" planting garlic.

I like music, but I would try any organic garlic at this point.  I'm so frustrated right now.  

(Source: Territorial Seeds)

Anyone?  I even looked on Etsy, and all that I see are pre-orders for fall.  Sigh.,....urgh...

By the way, we have moved the garlic grow bags closer to the house now.

Breakfast Grits ~ Strawberry Crunch and a lot dirty dishes day

 

(recipe is from The Southern Lady Cooks, online)

I made us a sausage/tomato/chili and cheese grits breakfast casserole, to use up some tomatoes from the freezer.  It was the first time to try this recipe, and it was delicious.  So delicious my husband kept coming back in the kitchen to get another bite, and another, and another....so good.  I made farm fresh scrambled eggs to pair with it.  I will be taking some to youngest, as it made a lot.

Where do you all buy your grits?  I'm having a terrible time finding organic/non-gmo grits.  I need to day to search online I guess.  Any tips on where to buy them would be great.  It's been a while since I bought any, so if I find some, I will stock a bit in the freezer.  

In celebration of the crazy work schedule ending, I baked a strawberry crunch for my husband to take to work, for their celebratory dinner at work.  I love having those frozen strawberries on hand, and they smell as fresh as they did when I froze them.

After all the dishes were washed (hubby did the washing), dried, and put away, I did a lot of re-filling of stuff.  It was like everything was out all at once.

I buy a lot of organic ingredients in bulk, so the black pepper was re-filled, cinnamon, homemade vanilla, and the sugar canister needed refilled (I do not bulk buy sugar).

Speaking of homemade vanilla.  I keep this in a box in my closet, and when I went to retrieve the vanilla, I saw a tincture I started in 2021 and completely forgot about it.

The tincture has sage still in the vodka.  Is this still good to strain, or should I toss it?  I guess that year it was super crazy, so I completely forgot about it.

Most of the rainy day was involved with baking, but my wonderful husband went upstairs and helped me move the things, so I could paint more flooring.  

 

Whew! Crazy Hours End! ~ Extreme Clean/Renovations Update ~ Garden

 

We made it through it!  My husband had to work 14 days straight, with a switch to 2nd shift, and that was hard for the both of us.  It has finally come to an end.  Now we can get back to our home projects and have the evenings to ourselves. 

I literally have several lists going right now.  I figured, when this schedule is back to normal, I have options on what we do next, ha ha!

I have been painting the upstairs sub flooring with odor killer paint, and have one room more than half done.  We are super excited to get this job done, so we can install flooring.  I should the larger room's flooring painted in 3 days, 4 tops.

We have purged many boxes in the last two weeks, donated quite a bit, and our trash bin filled up as fast as it was emptied.

I have just a few more boxes to go through, but they are larger boxes.  The bedroom/closet are almost done.    We haven't talked much about door paint color yet.  We'll pick up paint swatches next trip to town.

On the garden updates:

- planted 16 new asparagus root starts, put short fencing in around to hold straw in place (for now)

-planted about 10 new rhubarb (temporarily in a grow bag)

We are to get 5-6 days of rain starting today.  I wanted to get these planted before the rain.  

What needs done in the garden:

-dig randomly growing red raspberry sprouts and re-home them, they are coming up in over in the vegetable garden where I have the original asparagus bed.

Gardening indoors:

-planted a basil and cilantro plant, because I have been terrible with seed starts with everything going on here lately.

How to make the most tender shredded chicken. . .

 

I have noticed, when I make an all-in-one chicken dinner in the crock pot (with chicken breast), it is the most tender chicken.

So....

I started to do this, for any baked casserole dinner that has shredded chicken as an ingredient - place organic chicken breasts (fat trimmed) into a crock pot (I salt and pepper it first) and cover with organic chicken broth (low sodium).  I cover the chicken completely with the broth.

I cook this on low all day.  I haven't really kept track of the hours, but maybe 6-7 hours.  I then turn off the crock pot, and shred the chicken, and add to whatever recipe I am baking in the oven.  I've even done this the day before, that way the chicken is already done.  It is the most tender chicken for our recipes.  

Note:  The chicken is so tender I use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the crock pot, or it simply falls apart in the crockpot.  It makes it easier to get to the cutting board to shred.

I don't know why I haven't even thought of this before, after making so many crock pot chicken dinners, but I've tried it twice, and my husband said to me, "whatever you did with the chicken, keep doing it!"  So much better than say boiling chicken to shred.  

Note:  I never buy canned shredded chicken unless we are taking a specific chip dip to a gathering.  However, I will be doing this instead next time.

Garden Harvest Tip and other ramblings

 

I like to dice up jalapenos I freeze from the garden, but the tip below is an idea to keep fresh peppers fresh, after harvesting.  Anyway, this breakfast had a lot going on in it.  I had a red bell pepper, bacon, a few sweet potatoes, onion, leftover pesto, eggs, jalapeno, and fresh green onions from the herb garden.  Delicious.  No recipe.  I just tossed it together.

As we near garden season, here is another tip I learned (America's Test Kitchen):

(source:  America's Test Kitchen)

I did not know this.  Typically, we either eat, can or freeze as we harvest, but at the end of the season this could be useful.

My husband has not had a day off for 2 weeks now.  Not even weekends.  We cannot wait for that schedule to end.

I have switched gears, and started to go through all the crafting supplies that were moved out of the bedroom closet.  There is a lot to go through.  

Tough decisions on what stays and what goes.

There is nothing going on in the garden currently.  I'm waiting on my husband's crazy schedule to end, before we purchase solar electric fencing.

My front flower bed is full of purple dead nettle.  Part of me says harvest it, the other says look away.

Wild Violets ~ Wild Violet Jelly ~ Wild Violet Tincture

 I have wild violets on our property, and they only bloom for a short time.  One area is around my clothesline, so I have to keep on top of it, before someone mows it down.

In the past I have made wild violet jelly for gifting and enjoying ourselves.  I just don't have the time to can anything right now, so I decided to make a medicinal tincture this spring.

Here is how I canned the jelly:  Wild Violet Jelly

It's perfect for gift giving because it is a beautiful color, and it tastes delicious.  I can it in 4 oz. jars, to make the recipe more shareable.  I typically only get enough blossoms for one batch when I do can jelly.  I first made the jelly back in 2018.  I got the recipe from another blogger (go to my link and it will then have a link for her blogpost).

(I picked these, and made this Sunday, before the frost)

The tincture is new to us.  I am doing research on uses, but so far cough, throat issues are two.  Have you made this tincture?  I would love to know what other benefits is contains, or illnesses it can be used for.

Happy Homemaker Monday

 I've mentioned that we make Four Thieves Vinegar for the year, and especially for winter months, and now I am making a Four Thieves Spray to clean the house with.

You can get the instructions with Mountain Rose Herbs online (there is a video).

It's been rough lately, when it comes to daily chores.  In the process of going through every single box/tote/bag for the closet, there are daily chores to do first.  It's been a bit overwhelming, but I know it will all be worth the work.

I decided to mix up some herbal tea mix for my version of "calm the fluff" down tea.  There are so many recipes for this online.  I used what I had on hand.

Asparagus is up a few weeks early and we are expected to have a frost tonight.

If you were asking about the recent afghan pattern, for the granny/double crochet ripple with a straight edge, I posted it yesterday:  HERE

Question:

Forget The Pharmacy - Grow Your Own Medicine: The Homesteader's Ultimate Self-Sufficient Guide to Grow Herbs, Craft Natural Remedies, and Treat Common ... Proactively (The Homesteader Herbs Series)

Do any of you have this book?  I tried to get it from the library, and they do not have it.  I'm wondering if it is worth the purchase?

Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

I will link up after she posts this morning.   Grab some cuppa, as it's sort of a long post today ha ha!

The weather. . .

49°/30° today, heading up to the 60's later this week, but lots of rain.

As I look outside my window . . .

Calm, a bit sunny.

Right now I am . . .

Brewing coffee late.

Thinking and pondering .  . .

Wondering if there is a difference in using licorice root for tea making or licorice root slices?  Does anyone know?  I tried googling it and it just kept giving me uses etc.

So, I came across this in a tote from the closet.  I am told that my Grandmother on my Dad's side made one for me and my siblings.  I am also told Mom stored them in her cedar chest and we were never allowed to play with them.  So, now I'm a grown older adult, and have no idea what to do with it.  The leg is also falling apart.

Our historical museum is closed due to water damage last winter, and we have no idea when they will open (if they even re-open).  Also, the head on this doll is barely holding on.  What would you do?   Storing it seems impractical.  My kids would not want it either.

On my bedside table. . .

Water, two crochet hooks, clock, remote, and heater remote.

On my TV this week . . .

I'll be honest, I'm not finding anything interesting on Netflix.  I may look at our movie stash this week.

Listening to . . .

Rock, 70's.  A girl's gotta have something to motivate this extreme clean, take back the house, get it organized stuff.

On my lunch  plate . . .

I boiled eggs, so eggs or egg salad.  Or sliced egg on a cracker with a spread.

On my dinner plate . . .

Not sure yet.

On the menu this week . . .

-Leftover sheet pan dinner (chicken sausage/carrots/potatoes), leftover asparagus and broccoli

-Chicken Spaghetti, garden green beans

-not sure on the rest just yet

Breakfast(s):

-Sweet potato hash with eggs
-Scrambled pesto eggs, bacon
-Chili Cheddar Egg Bake, sausage

On my reading pile . . .

I'm still reading Atomic Habits.  I am really enjoying this book, but not much time to read lately.

On the to-do list . . .

-dishes
-laundry
-dust

-clean roosts

-sweep/mop

-work more on the big purge

Plans for the week . . .

1. Start painting odor sealant on upstairs wood flooring

2. Get garden fencing up, or at least get it purchased

3. Gather all the donation items and deliver them (two places)

4. Gather all the trash (from the big purge) and get it out of the house (trash bin outside is FULL!)

What I am creating . . .

This is the afghan I mentioned at the top of this post.  I'm still working on it.

Also, a new tincture was made, and I will post tomorrow.

My simple pleasure . . .

Yogurt/peanut butter dip and apple slices.  I prefer organic greek plain yogurt mixed with just some organic peanut butter.  You can add honey for added flavor, but the peanut butter is enough for me.  

Looking around the house . . .

I have a lot to go through, before I move any craft supplies to the upstairs.  

From the Camera. . .

I inherited a knit pattern from one of my Grandmothers.  I found it in the box of beads.  However, she did not write down the size of knitting needle.  I have tucked this away for now.  It appears she used worsted weight yarn for it though.  Anyway, getting tucked away until I have more free time.  My focus is to get this house back in order.

Bible Verse, Devotional, Quote. . .

Prayers for Daughter E.  Her cat Tiger is in Kitty Heaven now.  He was 14 years old.  I will miss that turd.  He was a wonderful cat with a very lovely personality.