Changing Seasons

Fall is approaching quickly. By the calendar it is three short weeks away. By the cool nights it feels like it is already upon us. Quite honestly this growing year has been so challenging from the get-go that I will admit I am ready to put the garden to bed. We now enter the season of clean up and preservation. Time to let go of what didn’t go right and concentrate on what did.

We got tomatoes. Our outdoor Roma tomatoes survived the hail, the wind, the non-stop torrential rain, and the oppressive humidity. (And the weeds) They were not pretty. They developed blight and we had to trim them so drastically that some of the plants were left with only a few leaves at the very top. Through it all they survived.

Black Beans, I got some black beans. As you can see from the picture above, they are not huge, but I got some. I have picked more than that since. In the end I will only have enough for one meal for the two of us and that is fine. This was my very first time ever growing something like this, so I am pleased.

We got some carrots. The small size can be attributed to a few things. #1 I didn’t thin them (I have a hard time sacrificing healthy plants). #2 A lot of the good size carrots rotted because of the saturated soil. There was nothing I could do to prevent this. #3 I pulled some a little sooner than I should have. They might have grown if I hadn’t prematurely yanked them.

My herbs also did pretty well this season. I will have a supply of Holy Basil, Sweet Basil, Oregano, Peppermint, Sweet Marjoram, Calendula, Lemon Balm, Catnip, and Spearmint. I bought two half pint jars of Chamomile at the farmer’s market. Teas, tinctures, and infused oils will be good for the winter.

Raspberries, raspberries, and more raspberries. I don’t even have any pictures of them this year, but they were plentiful. Apparently, they loved the rain and the heat.

We have a good amount of butternut squash growing. I think we are up to 7. The vines are still healthy, so fingers crossed that they stay that way. Once picked, I will let them cure and store them away in a cool place for us to enjoy during the winter.

It’s time to move to preservation season.

Most people are familiar with freezing and are comfortable with this method. Over the next couple of weeks, I will share the other ways that we keep food. Even if you are unable to grow your own food, you are able to preserve food once you know the safety basics. Get creative with storage and you will be amazed at how much you can have on hand in case of emergency. With winter around the corner let’s dial this in and get some food stocked in your pantry, or closet, or under the bed, or bureau draws….

First up, canning. Stay tuned.

What are Your Excuses?

We all make excuses for failing to get things done in life. This post is a prime example. My goal is to get one published every week by Friday. It is now Tuesday morning, and I still haven’t gotten it finished. I could give you a long list of excuses but quite simply, I did other things instead of sitting down to write. I did not make this a high priority. Now I feel rushed and stressed out.

Is this you? Are you hoping that life will go back to being plentiful and affordable? Are you choosing busy work over learning a new skill? Have you put off starting a journey that is unfamiliar and a tad bit uncomfortable? Has self-resiliency been pushed low on your priority list? Let’s take a realistic look at this.

I can’t grow my own food because… I live in an apartment, I have no time, I have no money, I kill everything.

I’m too old.

I can’t get down on the ground or have other health problems.

I don’t want to look like a crazy conspiracy person.

If any of these excuses sound familiar to you, then know that you are not alone. I have heard them from many friends, family, and from my own mouth. Some are very real. Some are what they are; merely excuses.

Finances, where we live, and health restrictions are true obstacles, but they can be worked with. Would you rather learn some basics now, enjoy the successes and get the experimenting out of the way, or wait until things get more expensive in the grocery store and you have little choice?

I will address the easiest excuse on the above list. “I don’t want to look like a crazy conspiracy theorist.”

Gardening has now become linked to conspiracy. That in itself is crazy. Growing up I remember going to my aunt’s house, one of my Italian aunt’s. We played on the pavement because the city backyard was a fenced in garden. I never thought she was crazy. She wanted fresh tomatoes to cook down into gravy. When we moved out of the city my father made a garden. It was his refuge. We were not allowed in there, but we sure loved to eat what he grew. There was no conspiracy. It was about the taste of a fresh tomato.

Through the years I’m sure you have noticed that houses have gotten bigger but the area around them has gotten smaller. People spend more time in climate controlled homes and less time outside in the fresh air. Manicured lawns replaced vegetable gardens. People lost a connection to where their food comes from.

In the last few years, the disconnect has grown even bigger with the arrival of online ordering and direct to your door delivery. Imagine vegetables and meat appear with the push of few buttons on the phone. This is the false reality that society lives in now. This makes us look like crazy people because we want to grow and raise some of our own food.

So how will you respond to the sighs and eye rolls when you announce that you are going to grow something this year? Will you let them dissuade you? Will you give up before beginning? I say no! Don’t give in. Don’t give up!

Suggest making it a family project and enlist their help. Make it about the time together. Start small with something like an indoor herb garden.

Whole kits can be purchased on Amazon. They have many varieties. They are tasty and many have medicinal benefits as well.

If you have a balcony, porch, or area that gets full sun try some potted cherry tomato plants. They don’t take up much space and there is no need to dig up the landscaping. They make great snacking tomatoes or a bright topping for salads. Pick up some organic potting mix, we like Espoma products, when you purchase plant starts from a local nursery. Don’t forget some containers that are big enough to allow for growth. Five-gallon buckets can often be found free at grocery store bakeries. Used cat litter containers also work well. Drill multiple holes in the bottom to allow for good drainage. When purchasing the soil, make sure you buy soil made for pots. Regular garden soil will compact making it difficult for the roots to grow.

We all start somewhere. The key is to start. Imagine the flavor of fresh picked cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and chunks of mozzarella drizzled with olive oil. There isn’t any conspiracy there, just fresh food grown with your own two hands. You can do this.

I will leave you with this for today and I’ll tackle another excuse in my next post. It is now Tuesday afternoon and even though I didn’t reach my goal for last Friday, I will also not give up. I want to bring as many “over the hillers” along with me as possible.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Clicking on them will bring you to a product that earns me a small commission if you purchase. It does not cost you any additional money but helps me earn a little from writing. Thank you.

Our Journey Begins

Ten years ago, if asked how I envisioned this time in our lives I would say. WE are going to travel. WE are going to go on long drives and if we get tired, we will find a place to stay for the night. WE are going to be free spirits with a home base to return to when we needed stability.

I never envisioned the chaos and uncertainty of the last couple of years. I could never have imagined being stopped while crossing state lines that we have crossed our whole lives. I never anticipated a life where grocery stores were not freely entered, and shelves were bare. It was a rude awakening to see just how dependent we had become on convenience and how lax we had let ourselves get on preparedness. These were some of the events that grounded our free spirit dreams and changed the course of our lives forever.

The state of fear that panicked some, frightened us for a few months but did not paralyze us. We watched as people fought over food and household supplies. Warehouses were running on short staff or shut down and trucks had nothing to deliver. The news said this was short term, just long enough to “flatten the curve.” This did not look short term.

Long term shortages began to look real. Reality had given us a wakeup call. Nowhere in our life’s handbook was there a chapter on nearing retirement age and having to learn how to live without modern convenience. I would have remembered that chapter. It was time to take that call seriously.

We decided to use the extra money that was being handed out to move our lives in a completely different direction from the masses. We increased the main vegetable garden area. We experimented growing different vegetables in pots. I began studying herbs and planted a medicinal herb garden so that we will not have to rely on over the counter or pharmaceutical drugs.

With shelves remaining bare and prices rising I began sourcing milk and meat locally. I still bought from the store when I ran across a sale, so that we could build up reserves, but I vowed to never become dependent on the commercial food system again.

We traveled the internet instead of the countryside. I became a regular visitor to Carolyn and Josh Thomas, Melissa K Norris, and Jill Winger’s websites. I studied up on cooking from scratch, food preservation methods and we learned as much as possible about increasing our food production.

With all the free time at home I ventured into bread making. It was not always pretty or edible as bread but with the help of my dehydrator, I was able to stock up on breadcrumbs from the disasters.

When yeast became impossible to find I jumped onto the sourdough bandwagon. Over the last couple of years, I have managed to kill a couple of starters, but I think I am getting the hang of it now.

As life appeared to begin to return to semi normal, we did not revert back to our convenient life. We continued to expand our growing area and our knowledge.

It is hard to believe that our journey into self-reliance, self-sufficiency, or food independence, which ever term you choose to use, began just three years ago. WE have made huge advances and show no sign of waning. WE cannot do all that we would like, but as economic stability continues its downward spiral, WE are taking a proactive stance when it comes to the control over our own lives. It is never too late, and you are never too old to take responsibility for your own welfare. Start small if you have to but start. The peace of mind it brings is worth a lot more than the conveniences you may have to give up.

Growing Herbs

I have grown to love herbs and learning how to grow them at my home to makes our own remedies, skin care, and nutritious food makes them all the more beautiful.

That was not always the case. I was afraid to use them medicinally. I thought I was going to poison someone. It was during 2020 while stuck at home that I realized as much as I love essential oils, (I am studying to be a Certified Aromatherapist), I could not use them if I could not get them. I took to the internet and discovered I can grow my own herbal remedies. In fact, I already had been. I just didn’t know it.

Wild Violet and Dandelion

Mullein Leaf

Stinging Nettle

These four herbs were growing in my yard all on their own. There is a good chance they are growing in yours also. Once I learned the many benefits of these wild plants, I was hooked on growing as many plant-based remedies as possible.

I began with Calendula (Calendula officinalis) It is also known as Pot Marigold. Do not confuse it with the Marigolds that you find for sale at garden centers, those are not edible. Instead find a packet of seeds that contain the Latin name Calendula officinalis and get them planted in a warm sunny location. They will bring you these beautiful, aromatic, edible, blossoms. Picking the flowers signals the plant to create more. Pick some for you and leave some for the bees. The plant will continue to bloom. How cool is that? At the end of the season, the flower heads dry up and turn brown. It is at that time you can harvest seeds for the following year or let the seeds drop to self sow. I have them popping up in areas of the garden where the seeds were blown or carried away by critters.

The spring of 2021 I went a little crazy with my new herb garden. I am not a confident gardener so, just in case I killed the plants I wanted some insurance. I started two of everything. I planted Peppermint (Mentha x piperita), Sage (Salvia officianalis), Bee Balm (Monarda), Catnip (, and Thyme. Everything sprouted but not everything flourished. The Catnip got eaten. The bee balm overtook the thyme and killed it. Still, I was happy with the herbs I was able to harvest that first season.

Then came spring of 2022. I went out every day to watch the new growth peeking through the soil. Anyone who knows plants knows the herbs that I planted are spreaders.

Peppermint had traveled under the purple Tulips and around the Roses, to establish itself along the foundation. It also returned in the spaces where I had originally planted it. I was going to have a Peppermint jungle on my hands.

My Sage and Bee Balm also came back twice as big. The sage did wonderful. I was able to harvest enough to make tincture, add it to tea blends, and have a supply in the kitchen for cooking. The Bee Balm did not fare as well. It developed powdery mildew pretty early in the season. I cut it all back and threw the leaves into the fire pit. It did regrow but despite the draught conditions of this summer, the second growth also developed the powdery mildew. I cut it all back and dug the plants up. I will find new seeds and a new location for the spring of 2023.

As for Thyme, I threw the seeds I had into a railing box that we place on the deck. It grew full and healthy along with some Sweet Marjoram, Green Onions, Rosemary, and some volunteer trailing Petunias. As the weather turned cold, I debated what to do. I decided to try repotting it and bringing it inside for the winter. Will it grow? I don’t know. Reading up on bringing outside plants inside I haven’t found too many positive outcomes, but I won’t know unless I give it a try myself. I’ll keep you updated. I also brought a huge potted peppermint plant inside.

Yes, I planted more peppermint

Growing and using plants for our health has been a life changing experience. As I learn more about plant medicine my sense of ease increases. There is no need to run to the store for Ibuprofen or Tylenol. I have jars of White Willow Bark Tincture and Glycerite made up. There is no stomach upset or damage to the liver and kidneys. This is a very good feeling. I want to share that feeling with everyone who wants to listen and learn. As our world gets more and more wonky, I think it is important information to have.

You can grow some of your own herbs where you live too. You don’t have to have a large property to begin taking control of your own health and wellness. A balcony or porch during summer months or a sunny window in winter. Begin using herbs every day. Add black pepper and turmeric to your meals to help with inflammation. Make a cup of chamomile tea in the evening to relax before bed. It’s cranberry season. Grab some organic ones at the store and make your own unsweetened juice. So many of the herbs and spices that we use regularly have amazing healing properties. Don’t be afraid like I was. But a word of warning, once you start down the herbal path, you might never look back.

*Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor. I cannot diagnose or treat any medical condition. I am a person who loves talking to people about herbs, essential oils, and other natural approaches to individual wellness. Do your own research and consult your medical professional before using new herbs.