Today I wanted to share some events the past week in the Heart of the Home, my kitchen.
I have been busy with the watering of my garden and trees and trying to keep up with homemaking, all while supporting my husband in his busy schedule right now. These photos are a few things I enjoy and wanted to share today.
💚💚💚
The collards are from our garden. I cook collards or kale each morning to go with breakfast. Some folks say they have to "work in their greens". I say, we learned and loved these since we living in South Georgia. The locals taught me about greens for breakfast, or any meal, and I hav done this since. My husband now enjoys them too.
Though we have a bit of difference on how cooked they should be. He likes crispy, I like them soft. But crispy is good so that is what we have.
💚💚💚
Next up in todays sharing is my hardy sage bush. I started this from seed in Ohio. When we knew we were moving I knew I was taking my sage bush with me. So we dug it up, put it in a pot and it went in our little U-haul. Then 4 days across the country to our new home.
I planted it within the first week and it has stayed here ever since. Many folks here in southern Colorado tell me herbs don't over-winter well here. I believe this one has done so well because it is up close to the house. So the amount of snow we get isn't always covering it.
What do I use sage for, that would make me bring it with me? Well, the bringing it with me is a bit of pride. I started it from a seed!
What do I do with it? I make my own breakfast sausage every 6 weeks out of ground turkey, and this sage is one of the main ingredients. See the little brown jar. That has 6 armfuls of dried sage all into that jar. That much will last about 3 to 4 batches of sausage.
This year my sage really loves the attention it is getting. It is home to a cute little frog too. He helps with the bug control.
💚💚💚
Also the past couple weeks I have been making and preserving goat milk keifer. I am happy to share that I don't do this day in and day out, but we do drink a bit every day. Just a little. It takes a little less than 24 hours to ferment and then it's ready.
After this batch is done, I will strain it with a plastic strainer and pour the wonderful kefir into a clean jar, then the grains go into the next clean jar. A lid, loose. and their off again to make kefir.
Since we don't drink a bunch, I freeze it in ice cube trays. This allows me to pull out a couple every other day and that's our tasty treat. Putting it over fresh blueberries is so delicious.
This method seems to have helped repopulate my gut. I've had years of yogurt, but I heard yogurt may feed the good bacteria and kefir may help repopulate. I don't know if that is true, but my tests came back recently with good bacteria being in the range it should be. Maybe this kefir is helping!
💚💚💚
And this is a peek into my heart. I LOVE to recycle. My husband knows I am bohemian/hippie at heart and I just can't toss plastic in the trash. There is a story behind this that dates back to being a kid. I was in elementary school and we watched a video about our environment. One of the images showed a barge off the coast of Calif. Somewhere in the ocean, LOADED with all of our trash. They had no where to put it and so it was loaded and sent off to sea. For all I know it's still there!
This impacted me so greatly that I have always recycled since. Even while camping. All plastic comes home with us. My husband used to groan, but now participates because he knows it is important to me. I don't want my trash to contribute to that heap! Now, I am not a fanatic and try to do zero based trash. I am sensible, but when I can this is what I do.
For plastic bags, I use them and then once a week I wash them with soap and about 10 drops of tea tree oil in my dish water to help clean. Then they get hung up on my handy-dandy drying rack :-)
A string with clothes pins on it. This came about in my tiny little nook in Ohio. I just didn't have the room there for much. You can see it on any link labeled "kitchen" on the side bar.
I hope you enjoyed my sharing of what's been happening in the Heart of my Home. There is so much done in the little corner where I work, and I'm sure in yours too. I like to stand back and take a moment to be grateful to God for all that he gives me that I can create in my little corner.
 |
| Fresh collards from the garden. |
 |
| Cooked up with a bit of butter to go with breakfast. We eat kale or collards each day to get our greens and for calcium. |
Next up in todays sharing is my hardy sage bush. I started this from seed in Ohio. When we knew we were moving I knew I was taking my sage bush with me. So we dug it up, put it in a pot and it went in our little U-haul. Then 4 days across the country to our new home.
I planted it within the first week and it has stayed here ever since. Many folks here in southern Colorado tell me herbs don't over-winter well here. I believe this one has done so well because it is up close to the house. So the amount of snow we get isn't always covering it.
What do I use sage for, that would make me bring it with me? Well, the bringing it with me is a bit of pride. I started it from a seed!
What do I do with it? I make my own breakfast sausage every 6 weeks out of ground turkey, and this sage is one of the main ingredients. See the little brown jar. That has 6 armfuls of dried sage all into that jar. That much will last about 3 to 4 batches of sausage.
This year my sage really loves the attention it is getting. It is home to a cute little frog too. He helps with the bug control.
 |
| My sage bush! |
💚💚💚
Also the past couple weeks I have been making and preserving goat milk keifer. I am happy to share that I don't do this day in and day out, but we do drink a bit every day. Just a little. It takes a little less than 24 hours to ferment and then it's ready.
After this batch is done, I will strain it with a plastic strainer and pour the wonderful kefir into a clean jar, then the grains go into the next clean jar. A lid, loose. and their off again to make kefir.
Since we don't drink a bunch, I freeze it in ice cube trays. This allows me to pull out a couple every other day and that's our tasty treat. Putting it over fresh blueberries is so delicious.
This method seems to have helped repopulate my gut. I've had years of yogurt, but I heard yogurt may feed the good bacteria and kefir may help repopulate. I don't know if that is true, but my tests came back recently with good bacteria being in the range it should be. Maybe this kefir is helping!
 |
| Making goat milk keifer. |
And this is a peek into my heart. I LOVE to recycle. My husband knows I am bohemian/hippie at heart and I just can't toss plastic in the trash. There is a story behind this that dates back to being a kid. I was in elementary school and we watched a video about our environment. One of the images showed a barge off the coast of Calif. Somewhere in the ocean, LOADED with all of our trash. They had no where to put it and so it was loaded and sent off to sea. For all I know it's still there!
This impacted me so greatly that I have always recycled since. Even while camping. All plastic comes home with us. My husband used to groan, but now participates because he knows it is important to me. I don't want my trash to contribute to that heap! Now, I am not a fanatic and try to do zero based trash. I am sensible, but when I can this is what I do.
For plastic bags, I use them and then once a week I wash them with soap and about 10 drops of tea tree oil in my dish water to help clean. Then they get hung up on my handy-dandy drying rack :-)
A string with clothes pins on it. This came about in my tiny little nook in Ohio. I just didn't have the room there for much. You can see it on any link labeled "kitchen" on the side bar.
 |
| Drying bags to re-use. |
💚💚💚
Lastly is my fancy green beans. They grow purple and cook to be green. A few years ago while in Ohio, a wonderful woman from Territorial Seeds understood my need to grow something fun, and yet my husband doesn't like anything funky. Just green beans. So she taught me about these. I get the satisfaction of growing something fun, he gets to eat "normal" green beans. We both benefit.
 |
| Now you see them... |
 |
| Now you don't! |
Blessings and His peace be with you,
Mrs. Peterson
