Meet the officially unofficial Lady Wilde herbal tea! A gorgeous blend of home grown, hand picked flowers of mallow, lavender, and rose coupled with a touch of chocolate mint.
As would be expected, the smells are floral and heavenly. When the drying is complete, I’ll let you know how it tastes.
Nutrition and Benefits:
Mallow flowers: soothe the throat
Lavender flowers: lower blood pressure and lift the spirits
Rose petals: contain antioxidants, vitamin c, iron and calcium
Chocolate mint: boasts vitamins A and C, manganese and a whole lotta flavor!
The harvest is in full swing and each day we collect a little basket of goodies to enjoy. Today we have some blackberries, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, chocolate mint, fresh thyme, sage, lavender flowers and dill.
What delicious haul!
Garden tomatoes and mini Anaheim peppers for taco night!
We’ve got tomatoes ripening on the vine (and they are tasty!), roses are in bloom, strawberries galore, purple pole beans, onions, herbs, and the fall garden sprouting!
I absolutely love the homesteading life. I get to feel the satisfaction of harvesting the literal fruits of my labor, knowing that it’s healthy and organically grown right here at home, while improving and supporting the local ecosystem.
We get a wide range of bees and butterflies that love our plants and flowers. Too bad for us, we really support the slug population as well, but I guess we can’t be too picky. I’ll let the chickens deal with those slimy pests.
Broccoli, kale, lettuce and herbs
Speaking of the chickens, we have determined that we def have a rooster. So egg production will be slowed by 25% right off the bat. However, we also forego the need for the girls to establish their pecking order, so it’s a good trade off for sure. It should make integrating our younger birds with the first flock much easier. At least that’s the hope. We’re gonna do what we can and trust God for the rest!
Sorry for the vertical video there but I love this roosters crow. It’s unique and I don’t know if it will change as he matures or what. But I’m loving it!
Now, I do have to admit that I have moments when I wonder what I’ve gotten myself into, but honestly, homeschool, homesteading, tattooing and church are wonderful ways for me to spend my time. Each day is a lesson, and an adventure. It’s both exhausting and rewarding and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Increasingly it appears that much of our modern society is becoming more and more uncertain. In the last two years I’ve heard, and have asked myself questions like… Do our votes really count? Can we afford gas prices much longer? Will this inflation ever quit? Are food shortages really on the way?
With so many questions swirling around, I’ve been inspired to find a few alternatives to depending on supply chains. I’m in no way completely self sufficient, but when I started hearing rumblings of shortages I immediately thought of victory gardens!
Victory gardens were a term coined during WWI. They were a way everyday Americans helped to alleviate demand to support the war effort. Most of these victory gardens were planted in backyards, churches, and community parks, etc. They generally contained beans, beets, squash, cabbage, carrots, kale, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, turnips, and Swiss chard. A wholesome collection of easy to grow crops.
Herbs galore
As someone who personally feels our country is a captured operation at the moment, I’ve been working hard on my Victory Garden. I don’t know the future but as a precaution, I thought it would be wise to offset some of the goods I require from the store.
In addition to planting traditional crops, I’ve been learning about edible plants that grow naturally around the PNW. There are a ton of truly nutritious plants that we call weeds that provide all the necessary vitamins and minerals, and they taste good!
One of my most favorite star players in this category of edible weeds is the mallow plant. It has pretty much taken over my garden. Before I knew it’s benefits, it was the bane of my existence. I was overwhelmed with mallow and furiously tugged at each plant. But! Now I know that not only does mallow make for a killer addition to a lovely salad, but like okra, it gives of a gelatinous thickening agent that pioneers used to make marshmallows with.
Mallow surrounding the rocks in front of the chicken coop.
Also, the chicks absolutely loooove mallow snacks and cluck impatiently when they see us coming. I’ve tried several snacks and so far their favorites include blueberries, grapes and mallow.
So, in addition to my lively traditional garden, I’m letting the weeds grow and flourish and seeing what other edible foraging might happen throughout the year. Clovers, dandelions, rose hips, amaranth, and apple mint are just a few wild edibles that grow themselves in my yard with zero effort on my part. Thank you God for providing so many wonderful plants!
It feels good when you begin to harvest the fruits of your labor. The whole family gathered around the bountiful crop, hands in the dirt eager to find… where is it? Ah, there it is… the first one. Oh yeah.
Littles aren’t always very big on doing the labor part, but when it comes to reaping the harvest, they will push you out of the way.
“Leave the dirt digging to me,” they say.
Next thing you know, you’re having new potatoes for dinner!
The time has come! Our once fluffy butt chicks have graduated into 3 pullets and a rooster ready to spring the brooder. So, yesterday we put them out in the coop for the first time. It’s been bittersweet for the humans, but the birds couldn’t be happier. They have room to run and scratch around for bugs and grit. It’s their own little slice of chicken heaven.
Kids spreading a straw bale in the coop
The kids and I visit them every couple few hours to make sure they’re adjusting well, and to throw them treats of mallow and Basil leaves.
The dogs are also very happy to have them outside, and watch them like it’s Chicken TV 📺 I think Phoebe wants to play, but Frank wants to taste them. Gotta watch that guy.
Frank checking out the coop while we put the finishing touches on.
Meanwhile, inside the homestead, we’ve brought the latest batch of little fluffy cheeps into their new digs. They are loving all the new room in there, too, playing keep away games with bits of straw, and even climbing the walls. They’re adjusting nicely to being the center of attention, and I can’t wait to get them in the coop with the other ladies.
Two weeks old now. Blacka, Rosie, Iris, and Food Bar checking out their new place for the first time.
We at the Artful Homesteader have embarked on a perilous and unconventional journey.
One full of danger and suspense.
Exciting and hopeful, yet unpredictable.
This trek must be traveled with careful attention to detail, and precise measurement.
This perilous mission is growing, propagating, and fruiting the prickly dragon fruit plant right here, in Northwest Washington. Where it rains a ton and has many, many cloudy days. Not the ideal, but the victim, excuse me, specimen has thrived with us for a couple of rainy months. So, that’s positive!
How it started
In the progress picture above you can see all the new growth sections on it. Then below, you can see one section started reaching for the sky in a weird thin arm like manner, which probably means it needed more light. So I put it under a full spectrum grow light to see if that fixes the issue. Not sure what it will do now. Time will tell. It also started getting aerial roots, which I removed.
I’m now trying to root the clipped sections to propagate it and have a dragon fruit family.
Fingers crossed!
If this mission is successful, I will have an abundance of home grown dragon fruits, or at the very least some amazingly cool cacti.
So, either way it’s a win!
The bottom image is the original large stalk and the others are smaller cuttings from that guy.
If anyone reading this knows something about dragon fruit plants or has any tips, I’d love to hear about it.
If you’ve been following me the last few weeks then you know I’ve been working on a chicken coop for my four chicks. The coop is coming along nicely, and my girls are pretty happy mother cluckers living in the main room of the house (at least for another week).
They are the stars of the show – loved by all, especially Frank, the big dog. He literally drools while he watches them play keep away, and flutter about. Eyes on that guy at all times.
Things have been going so well with the first feathered crew that this Artful Homemaker decided to go for the gold… yolks, that is!
We decided to increase our flock. Not by two more chicks, cause that’s too easy. Not by three more, or even four more baby birds, but no less than five more chicks have found their way into our hearts and home. And boy am I excited for these babies! Observe the cuteness below…
The New Crew is 3 Easter Eggers & 2 Speckled Sussex
Some might think it’s a little crazy to add five more living, breathing, mess making creatures to a household already containing 4 humans, 2 dogs, a homestead cat, and four hens on a very small city plot. But.. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Yeah, it should be fine. The following time lapse video assures me that it’s gonna be all good. God willing it will be good.
The warm weather has arrived in the Pacific Northwest after what seemed like eons of rain, snow, random hail storms (in April??), and then more rain. The strawberries have been very happy about the excessive water though, and today we picked our first ripe berry of the season. We shared it as a family, and let me tell you it was a lovely way to begin a Monday morning!
Everyone really enjoyed their piece of the sweet red berry, except my 2.5 year old who felt he should have had the whole thing to himself and was more than a little upset that wasn’t the case. Boy did he let us know his grievances, too! Yikes.
The first homegrown strawberry of 2022
Tantrums aside, as I masticated the tender flesh, I couldn’t help but picture my food forest in all its fruiting glory. Creamy, dreamy tomatoes, crisp peppers, sweet cherries, scrumptious herbs, plump pumpkins, delectable Jerusalem artichokes, new potatoes, and farm fresh eggs! It all sounds so wonderful! Something about growing your own food, in any capacity is very satisfying, and inspirational to me. It’s what God intended, and I feel involved with His creation on an intimate level.
No big dill… haha 😀
When I was working full time as a graphic designer, I felt very far from nature and creation. Driving a noisy car through a busy concrete jungle to an office filled with artificial light and computer screens was crushing my soul. I dreamed of ways to get out from under my manager’s thumb and manage my own day.
Part of that dream involved learning to sustain myself on multiple levels; working for myself, gardening, sewing, and ultimately homesteading! As I continue to develop, expand, and watch my food forest flourish, I am filled with an eternal gratitude to my creator for all the wonderful things He has made.
Potatoes & Jerusalem Artichokes thriving amongst the weeds and grass
This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
All glory to God for His hand in helping me get where I am today.
Artful Homemaker 