From My Home to Yours: 8/8/25

 From My Home to Yours

8/8/25

~ Days 2 - 8 of this month's 'every bit counts' challenge ~

What did I add to my pantry this week!  

 #everybitcountschallenge

Let's find out ...

Day 2:  Cherries .... purchased, ready to pit, pitted and ready for the freezer and flash freezing.

Day 3:  For day three's challenge I switched from focusing on the food part of my pantry to the medicinal part. I've had a batch of cider fire doing its thing for about 6 weeks which means it was time to strain it up and get it ready to add to the medicinal part of my pantry ...

Picture 1: Ready to be strained

Picture 2: First straining

Picture 3: Second straining

Picture 4: In jars, labeled and ready for the refrigerator

Day 4: I had some herbs that I had hung to dry several days ago. Today, I took them down and added them to the jars already in the process of being filled ...

Holy Basil/Tulsi

Spearmint

Chocolate mint

calendula (not pictured)

arnica (not pictured)

Day 5: I had to look for something easy to do for today's challenge as hubby and I defrosted, cleaned out and reorganized our upright freezer. Although, cleaning out the freezer would have been enough for the challenge, I did want to do a little something else ...

So, I covered these three herbs in olive oil. In about 4 weeks, I'll strain out the herbs and use the oils to make salves, etc. (I like to make my salves, etc in the fall season.)

pictured are:

Spearmint

St. John's Wort

Lavender

Day 6:  Moringa (Another powerhouse herb that has lots of uses.) and a very small amount of elderberries.  Yes, it's a small amount, but every little bit counts, and these elderberries will be used in my medicinal pantry, but this entry is about Moringa, not the elderberries.  I had a busy morning away from home today but wanted to get my entry for the day done before I left ... just in case my plans didn't go as I planned!!!

So, out the door I went to the Moringa bush and started clipping. I brought the clippings inside ... (I decided what I wanted to do for the challenge today, yesterday. When I plan ahead, things go much smoother.)

washed them ...

laid them out on clean hand towels ...

rolled each towel ...

and left them rolled in each towel until I had run my errand and returned home. The purpose for this was to get all the water off of them so that they would dry better.

They are now tied in bundles and hanging on my hearth where they will stay until they are completely dried. (Sorry, no picture for this, it's a stormy afternoon and the area where they are hanging is too dark to photograph.)

Day 7:  I had some ginger that needed preserving so I chopped it or maybe a better description would be 'chunked it' meaning I cut it up into chunks and dried it in the dehydrator. I also had a small amount of turmeric and did the same thing to it. I dried both in the dehydrator at the same time, just on different shelves.

The results ...

2 pint jars of dehydrated ginger chunks

small jar of dehydrated turmeric

How will I use them? In making cider fire!! I like to keep all the ingredients for making cider fire on hand so that when I need to make more, I don't have to run around trying to find the ingredients.

Day 8: Since I don't have a garden to harvest from at the moment, I have been doing 'whatever was at hand' to restock my pantry. Today, I needed to get the celery in my refrigerator preserved before it went bad. So, that's what I did ... I cleaned, chopped and flash froze the celery. I had two trays full and when they are completely frozen, I will vacuum seal them into bags and add them to the freezer part of my pantry. (I like to flash freeze items for at least 24 hours.)

For a good part of the rest of this challenge, I will be expanding the ways I'll restock my pantry this month. I guess what I'm trying to say is, having a garden is not the only way to have a restocked pantry and this year, I'm pulling out all the stops and utilizing all the things I've learned over a lifetime of pantry building.

I'm enjoying this challenge, it's forcing me to dig deep, think outside the box and use my pantry building knowledge to reach my goal of having, maintaining and keeping a well-stocked pantry.

I can do this!

You can do this!

We can do this!

That's it for the first full week of the #everybitcountschallenge.  

(I've completed 8 out of 31 days!)

In other news this week ...

I continued to work on organizing and cleaning out our pantry ...

Can you believe our high temperatures this week have been in the upper 70's and low 80's!!!  Just last week our highs were in the upper 90's and low 100's, it has been a welcome change however, it has rained most every day preventing us from being able to do much of anything outside.  In fact, we've been dealing with flooding in some areas.

Typically, August is a very busy month for us.  In fact, I usually take a good part of it off because the busyness gets really busy ... if you know what I mean!

But this year I really wanted to do the 'every bit counts' challenge ... which makes the month even more crazy.  I'm saying all of this to say that my posting schedule may be a bit off this month as a result ... just wanted you to know!

That's all for this week!  

I hope you've found something in my ramblings that will help and or encourage you in the upcoming week.

Update: 8/9/25 ... this is me waving the white flag!  I wanted to, I really, really wanted to, but I just can't!  Feelings of overwhelm have chased me around all day and I just will not go there.  What am I talking about ... I'm going to hit the pause button on the rest of the month of August and pick back up in September ... I'm going to do what I usually do in August ... take a break!  (August is a really busy month for us!)

That means I'll also be hitting the pause button on the 'every bit counts' challenge as well.  I will pick back up with it and with posting in September.  I hope everyone understands ... I'm old enough and wise enough to know that when I start feeling overwhelmed, I need to listen to my body and take a step back.  That's what I'm doing.  I'll meet you back here in September!

Until the next time ...

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

~ using my pantry to take care of my family and bless others as well ~

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

You might be interested in my other blogs ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine