The Perfect Summer Salsa

I've been meaning to blog about my favorite salsa recipe for a while but I kept forgetting... Alas I remembered to take a pic of it this morning as I was getting ready for a family get together.

Black Eyed Pea Salsa

- 2 15 oz cans of black eyed peas ( rinsed and drained)

Then really everything else kind of depends on what is in the garden right now but here is what I did

- half of a red bell pepper
-half of a yellow bell pepper
- 3 serrano peppers
- half of a large purple onion
-3 garlic cloves
- 1 large sliced tomatoes
1/2 c. Seasoned Rice Vinegar ( this is what makes it YUMMO)

Dice all of the peppers/onions/ garlic / tomatoes and put in the bowl with the peas. Then pour the rice vinegar over the top, stir and chill for at least an hour.

I love this salsa and everyone always requests it. It is so cheap to make and I typically have all the ingredients on hand. Make is spicier by adding jalepenos or more serranos.
I'm telling you this stuff is fantastic!

Keeping it real: Realistic expectations about your homestead Part 3.

Keeping it Real: Realistic Expectations about your Homestead Part 3

I've written two other posts about this subject, you can find Part 1 here  ( about Working, Land and School ) and Part 2 here ( about Food)
This post will focus on animals, and I'll have to have a Part 4 about Frugality.

I want a huge farm. I really do. I have always loved animals, and even as a child dreamed of marryinga  rancher and moving to a secluded farm in Montana and my job would be to feed the animals and keep lambs have babies.... Of course I didn't realize what hard work that actually was, but hey I was like 8.
I think that as a homesteader wannabe, I envision rolling meadows with frolicking goats, and a beautiful barn with an old milk cow named Bessie, a flock of chickens that stay at my feet when I'm hanging out the laundry, a couple of sheep I can shear and make my own yarn, maybe some turkeys gobbling in the distance. Ah yes..... that is what I want.

REALISTICALLY though we don't have the time or space to deal with that many animals. We have a flock of 18 chickens which give us plenty of eggs for our family , plus enough to share and even sell a few dozen every now and then. We've had guineas and a peacock or two through the years, and have tried our hand at ducks, but for now we are happy with the chickens.

I honestly don't even like goat's milk or goat's cheese. I do like the goat's milk soap though, so I might could justify having that I could make some lavish soap with goats but honestly I don't know if that is justfication enough. We do have a goat. His name is Clifford and he is a Nigerian Dwarf. He's a fun pet, but that's about the extent of his contribution to the homestead.

Here is a picture of him out in the snow this past winter.

We have 2 rabbits, but again they are pets. They are fat and lazy and won't hop away even if they have a chance. We have guinea pigs too. And a dog... and a cat.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it is OKAY! Not every little slice of homestead heaven has to have a milk cow, you don't have to produce all of your wool, you don't have to raise pigs ( which is fine with me by the way). It's important to realize your limitations and just start small.

I think chickens are a great place to start when looking to be more self sufficient. They really do make nice pets, and the eggs from free range chickens are amazing. Plus I probably have one of the only 6 year olds on a planet that begs me for boiled eggs and takes one to lunch everyday despite the other kids at school telling her it smells funny...

So what have your experiences with animals been? Are you to your "threshold" yet of animals on your place? What are you looking to get in the future?

Happy Homesteading.....

This post is linked up to the Monday Barn Hop and the Morris Tribe's Blog Carnival.

Strawberry jam? Yes please!

Ah strawberries. Yes it's already that time again. Time for the temperature to start to warm up, everything is blooming, birds are singing and active and gardens are all put in and just awaiting the time to be harvested here in a few months. Around here that also means STRAWBERRIES!!
We eat quite a bit of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches around here. My girls love them and they are great to take on picnics or as snacks. I have one daughter who will only eat homeade muscadine jelly, but the other one, as well as myself and the husband love us some strawberry jam.

There is nothing like freshly picked, sweet, juicy strawberries. We normally eat just as much as we put into our buckets.... But some do make it inside to make our beloved jam with.

Nothing  like the sweet smell of spring....

I love the small little jelly jars. I try to pick those up at yard sales and stuff. So we are starting the year off with 4 pints of strawberry jam plus 2 half pints. Then I ended up freezing 4 quarts. I use those for my famous Strawberry cake :) I'll have to post about that next time I make it.
I hope to do at least one more batch before the season is over.

This is linked up to Morristribe's Homesteader Blog Carnival. and The Prarie Homestead.

A camping we will go

We are lucky to live in a beautiful country, and even more specifically a beautiful state with lots of  state parks, nature trails and hiking areas.
We went camping this past weekend and had a great time. I love to get the kids outside and playing with nature.

The girls loved the sign that said "Bear Country". We did not see any bears though. I think they were half hoping we would and half hoping we wouldn't!

Here is hubby and little guy hiking. His hat is as big as he is! It was a little cool though so we made sure to cover his ears. We have purchased a hiking carrier for him, it just wasn't in yet. Normally we don't lug him around like this. Poor fella...

We made it to the top though. Highest point in Arkansas thank you very much. This picture kind of cracks me up. The oldest one is blowing a bear whistle in my ear, the middle one claims the sun is in her eyes and won't look at the camera , the baby looks fine though.

The views were spectacular though.

It's great to see animals and insects and bugs. We saw a few squirrels, and some coyote poop ( we suspect) , we saw about 7 deer one night right behind our tent. There were tons of birds and butterflies out too!

Finally little guy had decided he had ENOUGH, and out he went. Great memories with a wonderful family!

Do any of you have plans for camping this Spring/Summer? What are some of your favorite activities?

Happy Homesteading.....


Linked up to Monday Homesteading Barn Hop and The Morristribe Blog Carnival.

Keeping it Real: Realistic Expectations about your homestead Part 2

As promised I have a part 2 now, building off of my post here, which discussed working, education and land expectations. Today I want to discuss;: FOOD. There will have to be a part 3 now that discusses animals and frugality.

Food:

I think that when people start out on their homesteading quest they have grand visions of never purchasing anything at a store to eat ever again. I think I kind of thought that:) But REALISTICALLY you have to decide what you are capable f doing and where you want to spend your time and money. I am pretty proud of our garden. I post about it quite often.

Growing our own:
We have an amazing Spring/Summer garden, and I am venturing more and more into Fall gardening which normally just has turnips, greens, turnips pumpkns and maybe a few carrots. I do can a lot. My kids have never tasted jelly that hasn't been homeade. I make all of our pasta, pizza and other tomato sauces from our garden. We have plenty of frozen corn, squash , etc to get us through the  winter. We also have plums, cherries ( what the birds don't eat!) figs, strawberries, muscadines, grapes, blackberries and more pears than we could ever eat. We have two pear trees that amaze me every year. Other things we grow in the garden: cucumbers, okra, zuchinni, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, many varieties of lettuces and greens, eggplant, several kinds of peppers, green beans, watermelon, cantolope, onions and several different herbs. I can or freeze what I can. We also of course eat fresh all summer which is just magical.

BUT..... we don't grow everything we need. I still like to go to the farmers market for asparagus, which I admit I just haven't mastered yet. We love asparagus and I pay dearly for the beloved veggie. We also go to a local orchard and pick peaches, as well as buy additional strawberries to supplement our stash.

We can't grow citrus here, so I buy it at the supermarket, as well as avacados. Some years we grow potatoes, but we haven't in about 2 years, so I'll pick up some potatoes from the farmers market.
Technically I guess I could grow olives and make olive oil, and although that might be a fun project, I use a lot of olive oil and just don't think I could make enough to sustain me. Same with garlic, we have some, but I eat a lot of it, so I have to buy some.
We don't grow or grind our own wheat. That's OKAY. I still buy cocoa, sugar, flour and other staples. Again, that's okay.

We do only eat meat that we have harvested ourselves.Only deer meat or fish for us. We will eat crawfish ( which we of course call crawdads here in the South), shrimp and other seafood sometimes. I'm happy with that decision.

I do understand that this idea of providing all of your own food is very romantic, it just doesn't work for us. Avacados make me happy. Limes make me happy. Strawberries make my girls especially happy. And hey, we do the best we can,but there are just things that we have to buy.

The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can really embrace those thigs that you DO grow and master them.

Happy Homesteading.....

Linked up to : Monday Homestead Blog Hop and The Morris Tribe Blog Carnival.

Get a year Free of Organic Gardening Mag

My friend sent me the link to the above good deal. If you send in 2 UPC's from Annie's product you get a year free of Organic Gardening Magazine. here is the link to print the form.
http://www.annies.com/growinggoodness/
I buy Annie's stuff sometimes anyways, so getting a year free of a magazine I really like is just a bonus!

Another good deal is one from SavingStar. If you buy 10 cups of Stonyfield Organic Oikos Yogurt you get $5 back for you Amazon account. You have to link your store shopping rewards card to the account, which is how Savingstar knows that you purchased it. I have a Kroger card, but the site lists a ton of different stores that count.

I am so excited to see some deals like this coming out on good quality organic products. Normally promotions like this are for junky type food or processed stuff, but this is great! Enjoy.

Are there any other online deals such as the ones above you all have found on good quality products?

This is linked up with   and

Keeping it real: Realistic expectations about your homestead Part 1

This post is purely selfish and is all about me. All about my expectations and realities, but I do hope that someone out there is encouraged by my story of disappointments and why it's OKAY.

I think when you are starting to homestead or starting towards the idea of wanting to homestead we probably all have an expectation of how we want things to work ideally. I read these beautiful blogs and look at these pictures and in a way really yearn for other people's homesteads. But it's not realistic. It's not what works for my family and it's not going to help me feel good about my own situations. It's important to figure out which "elements" of homesteading work well for your family, for your situation and embrace that. Some examples:

Working:

 I was a SAHM for about 6 years. I loved it. I really did. But there came a point financially, personally, and an opportunity presented itself that I went back to work full time. Sometimes I do wish that I was still at home and all the kids were running around under my apron strings all day and there were no schedules to tend to. But, REALISTICALLY: I have a job I love ( I do for real, it's great) I get to work in a very professional environment with other like minded people to promote school gardens, farmer's markets, research food deserts, etc. etc. etc. etc. It's AMAZING). Our oldest goes to a fantastic small rural public school with a great teacher and she blossoms in it. Our younger two go to a babysitter 2 days a week that has a huge farm, and she only watches after my kids and she treats them like her own. She gives the real food! and they play outside most of the day exploring forts and tree houses, streams and playing with the animals. The other days they stay with my Mother in law. My husband and I both have flexibility within our jobs and we can attend school functions, doctor appointments etc.

Land:

Many homesteaders have a huge, sprawling bounty of land that I could easily be jealous of. But I have to say that our 5 acres is pretty fantastic. 3 ponds, a stream, a well ( that you can actually draw water from with a steel bucket!) trees, open spaces. It's quite stellar. You have to be happy with you have people, and make it work. We know we are very blessed to live here.

School:

 I read homeschoolng blogs... it's kind of my secret fantasy.. I would like to homeschool, and may in the future. But as mentioned earlier my oldest goes to a great school. My younger 2 will follow when they are old enough. There may be a point in public education that I no longer feel that this is best for them, but for now it works. My husband and I are involved in the school, I read to the kids constantly, we do fun educational activities all the time, I have homeschool materials that I use with them even though they aren't technically "homeschooled". I gave up my guilt of not homeschooling a long time ago, and it makes me a better parent knowing that it's okay!

This post is becoming increasing longer so there will be a part 2 coming soon that examines: gardening, food, animals, and frugality.

What are some other things that you really want to do as a "homesteader" but just aren't quite there yet? Are you content being where you are right now?