Fighting The Curse!

In Genesis Chapter 3 God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you... It will produce thorns and thistles for you."

Yep!  Wonderful.

That is why we have this:

And this...

 

 And this...

 

But even in God's original plan we had work to do. In Genesis 2:15 it says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

 

...And so that is what we did today.  We worked hard fighting the curse of weeds and taking care of our little piece of blessing.  Not all aspects of homesteading are glamorous- actually very few are- but the rewards are bountiful when you see the finished product of all your hard work.

 

 

Nothing left but the mailbox, the day lilies and dirt. 

 

The plan is to chip fallen branches (from the backwoods of our property) and cover the dirt with chip mulch and then next spring put in some more plants.  I think lavender would be good.  What do you think?

 

Country Stills

 

Dead Heads and Oil!

For most of the spring I have been working on the vege gardens- planting, weeding, watering etc. but it is evident that my attention (now that everything is in the ground) needs to turn to our flower beds.  They are overrun with "wild flowers/herbs" that aren't supposed to be or weren't planted there. They looked good for a time but now I must do a massive weeding.

I started to today with dead heading my roses.  Most of the trimmings went into the compost pile but there is one particular rose that smells soooooo...... delicious that I take the old petals that I've dead headed and pull them apart to put in a vase.  They smell amazing even after they have dried and turned a bit brown.  I like to think of it as free, natural room fragrance and also "repurposing/reusing because that is, you know, trendy and all that!

I also made time to start my plantain oil.  Plantain is a common herb.  Most men with lawns would call it a weed. How ever is a great external skin soother.  It can also be used internally and eaten but I'm focusing on external right now.  I harvested it very carefully- NOT.  I just ripped the leaves off some of my many plants, took them inside to rinse them, pat them dry and then I let them sit overnight.  (Okay mine sat for a few overnights until I could get to them.) It is important to let them air dry for at least 12 hours to let some of the natural moisture leave them so mold or fungus doesn't grow while steeping. 

Next chop up the herb leaves.  I do not have "mad" knife skills so I just tore mine up.  I put them in a mason jar, poured olive oil over them until they were covered and poured a bit of vodka on top to keep airborne mold at bay.  I covered the jar and shook it and then removed the cover and rubberbanded cheese cloth on the top of it.  Now it will sit on my nice sunny warm kitchen shelf for two weeks to steep.

After it has finished steeping I will strain the herb out (the alcohol will have evaporated out by then) and I will have plantain oil to use for 1st aid and for salves.  Yeah!

Working With What God Gives Me

Just a quick morning post.  Gonna work with the bounty that the Lord has given me today.  I'll be picking strawberries from our two patches and hopefully will secure enough for a batch of strawberry jam or strawberry rhubarb jam.  I also will be infusing some plantain oil today for use in a healing salve in a couple of weeks as well as exploring what else is growing "wild" that I can harvest and use.  (My poor delusional husband calls these things weeds.) I love foraging on my property.  God has so richly blessed us with all we need if we just open our eyes to see it!

What has God given you?

Flowers and salads!

Last night's dandelion and lilac salad was a success!  I will not be facing church discipline or excommunication. I don't know that people will be rushing to recreate it any time soon but everyone tried it and found it surprisingly good.  Everyone but Farmer John.  Turns out that he doesn't like the smell of lilacs (You think I would know this after 20 years.) and "they taste just like they smell."  After he was finished eating there was a little pile of lilac petals on the side of his plate.  Seems the dandelions were fine for him though.  Next time I'll sneak dandelion greens into it too.  I only did the flower heads last night.

Regular vege salad with the addition of edible flowers: Lilacs and Dandelions.

I also used my available flowers in a more traditional sense.

 Dandelions flower heads floating in a shallow bowl of water.

Lilacs as the centerpiece of the table.

The other in season item I used for the evening was rhubarb from my garden in a yummy rhubarb crumble topped with homemade vanilla custard!

My rhubarb earlier this spring.

 

It is so much fun to "use what you've got" and be creative rather then running to the store and buying something.

The only downer to the night was the over abundance of mosquitoes that chased us off the deck and indoors for the evening.  Bat houses, homemade natural mosquito sprays and itch remedies will be fodder for another blog post.

Spring on the Homestead: Lilacs and Dandelion Trails

We first laid eyes on our homestead almost a year ago.  When I saw it, it was evident that the property was for me.  One of my big wants on my "list" was lilacs.  I wanted my home to have some thriving lilacs on it- the more, the better- and this property had one whole, long fence line of the shrubs.

 

They were beautiful and smelled heavenly.  Unfortunately for me we didn't close on the house until mid-June and the lilacs had finished.

But it is spring once more and those precious lilacs are mine- ALL mine! Not only do I intend on some very pretty bouquets in the house but since lilac flowers are edible I will adding the blossoms to salads and topping desserts with them.  I might try sugaring them... wouldn't they look pretty on a cake or pie?  I've also heard that one can make lilac wine.  I'm not a drinker but it might be fun to learn how to make flower wines. Hmmm... lilac tea too.

Its a good thing I'm hosting a ladies bible study tomorrow night.  I think I shall be creative with my lilacs and dandelions and see how my foraged treats go over.  It will either be a big hit or I'll end up in church discipline. LOL!

 

 My coveted fence line!

 A white lilac growing in one of the flower beds.  I wish I could bottle up the aroma!

Another lilac type of shrub in another flower bed.  This one however lacks any aroma.

A beautiful bonus: A path of dandelions leading back into our forested area.  I am a lover of the herb (dandelions are not weeds) and couldn't believe this beautiful path was on my property.  God is so good to bless us with this land!