~ from my home to yours, living the Working Pantry lifestyle ~ surviving today's economy ~ a can-do spirit and attitude ~

Friday, June 2, 2023

A Journal of My Days: 6/2/23

We got some much needed rain and everything green and living has just come alive!  We are so thankful!

(Pictured:  savoy cabbage)

In the Garden:  I harvested seeds from our bunching onions.  Not only does the 'unknown' variety I have produce seeds, but it also multiplies so I'm able to grow them from seed as well as individual sets.  I've had them for quite some time and do not know the variety.

I also was able to start harvesting Egyptian walking onion seed/sets and replant them.  This will give us fresh from the garden green onions for fall eating.

I was able to harvest basil (for spice and spice mixes), yarrow (for herbal remedies), oregano (for use as a spice and in spice mixes), English thyme (for use as a spice and in spice mixes), and chamomile (for herbal remedies and tea).   (Pictured are basil, oregano, English thyme.)  These inexpensive plastic colanders from the Dollar Tree are perfect for air drying herbs.  I simply harvest, clean and place in these colanders.  Several times a day I take my hand and move the contents around.  In a few days they are completely dry.  Yes, I have a dehydrator, but this is my preferred way to dry herbs as it doesn't involve any heat, which affects their potency and nutrition.

We planted our first sweet potato plant.  As the slips grow and get bigger, we'll plant more.

I thinned out my mullein patch and moved some to another location.  I am literally planting herbs anywhere I can find an out of the way spot!

We're excited that our apple tree is still holding on to its fruit!  If the weather cooperates and we don't get a hurricane before harvest time, we stand a good chance of having apples to harvest this year!

We harvested squash, potatoes and spring onions this week as well.

In the Kitchen: Hubby made a fudge pie for my special day and yes, it was delicious!  Here's the recipe he used:

Fudge Pie  (This recipe came from a community cookbook that I've had for 44 years.)

I stick oleo, melted  (hubby used butter)

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1 tablespoon flour

3 eggs

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 8-inch unbaked pie shell

Mix all ingredients well and pour into pie shell.  Bake at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes.  (This was not long enough for our oven and we had to cook it another 20 minutes.  The next time we make one, we will bump the temperature up to 350 degrees, instead of the 300 the recipe calls for ... we are wondering if this was a typo as that seemed like a low temperature to us.)

In the Pantry:  I am busy harvesting herbs and preserving them for use in the upcoming year.  I'll be sharing spice mixes I make and keep on hand, flavored salts and other ways I preserve herbs in the coming weeks.

Fitness:  That fudge pie was so good, and I confess I had more than 1 or 2 pieces ... hey, it was my special day!  I knew what it would look like when I stepped on the scales the next morning, but I also knew that as long as I got back on plan, it would soon be gone.  Those consistent and sustainable habits I've been working on for the last 3 years has taught me that it's okay to enjoy 'special occasions' without guilt.  I like not only knowing that but also seeing the proof of it in my fitness maintenance.

Sewing Room:  My hubby asked me what I wanted to do on my special day, and I told him I wanted to stay home all day long and not go anywhere!  I did and got this Christmas cuddle quilt quilted.  I still need to bind the edges. Here's a little sneak peek, I'll do a reveal of the entire quilt once I get the binding finished. 

The instructions for the pattern can be found HERE!

I also added a crochet flower to each of the two zipper bags I made earlier.    

I worked more on the apron I've been sewing up.  All I like is the topstitching and it will be completed, but I didn't want to show it until it was completely done.  I am so pleased with the way it turned out and can't wait to get it finished and share it.  It is definitely one of my nicer aprons and will be reserved for special occasions.

The decor of my home is of a 'farmhouse' nature and when I found this small wire basket (pictured below) among our stored things, I immediately brought it out!  It once was a carrier for milk bottles, the kind the milk man would deliver to your home ... yes, it's that old.  Anyway, I am in the process of cleaning it up and will display it in my home.   I would rather have something like this over most decorating items from a store.

Bible Study:  I finished writing out the book of II Timothy and started the book of Titus.  Sometimes the best way to study the Bible is to let it speak for itself.  Scripture writing does just that!

I also added another post on writing scripture topically showing an example of how I'm doing it.  You can see it HERE!

That's it for this week, how has your week gone? 

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

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8 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! Glad you had a great week! Hurricane season is sure getting going way too early. Let's hope it doesn't keep it up! I hope you get to harvest those apples!

    We had a wonderful visit with two sons families here at the lake house. We had a great time and made lots of good memories. And we ate and ate. The kids swam in the cold lake and had a blast We also visited our favorite waterfall and some hiked along the Chauga River. We were able to get a free year's pass for the county parks and boat ramp parks here because Hubby is 65.

    Savings included a bin of outdoor pillows marked down to $1 at Walmart. We bought fresh pillows for our screen porch. Then at Lowe's we found half price annuals for our deck pots back home. We were fortunate to arrive as they were pulling plants for the clearance rack.

    Our two weeks here have flown by and I would love to stay for another week but it is time to head for home.

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    1. Lana, it sounds like you had a wonderful time! That's a really good bargain on outdoor pillows. We didn't do any shopping this week hence no bargains to report. I hope your transition back home goes smoothly!

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  2. A lovely busy and productive week for you, Patsy. How sweet of your hubby to bake that pie for you. I copied the recipe and will make it soon!!
    My precious sister who went to be with the Lord unexpectedly 4 years ago birthday was May 30. It was a very hard day for me as well as my nieces.
    It's heated up here and we've been getting out to the garden extra early. This week we put in 12 white sweet potato slips, more butternut squash and zucchini seeds, green beans. I read where planting green beans and radishes together helped each grow, so once the radishes were up I planted the beans inbetween the rows. The arugula is about ready to start harvesting. I planted more carrots.
    Our scallions haven't come up yet. This morning 3 dozen English muffins were made I'm hoping to make a couple of carrot cakes this afternoon. Have a blessed week. Cookie

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    Replies
    1. Cookie, I'm sorry for your loss, it doesn't matter how long it's been when the anniversary of the day of their departure rolls around, it brings pain and heartache.

      Be careful with the cooking time and temperature on the pie. We've since consulted similar recipes and the time and temperature were completely different.

      We're still planting too, and plan to continue as long as we can. It's too hot and humid here for spring crops now so we are concentrating on summer crops instead. Towards the end of next month, we'll shift our focus to fall and winter crops.

      I hope you have a great week ahead!

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  3. Happy Birthday! I prefer having things with history in my home over store bought as well. Basil and squash already! That's wonderful. Ours are still quite small. I've been harvesting herbs too, and for the first time, am harvesting mullein flowers for a skin salve. I'm excited to try it.

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    Replies
    1. Laurie, aren't mullein flowers pretty!!! What kind of salve are you going to make?

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  4. Happy birthday!!! When you say write out a book do you mean that you write like in a journal the whole book? That’s an interesting idea

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    1. Lee Ann, Yes, I write out 3 - 4 verses every day until I get the whole book written in a journal/spiral notebook, etc.

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