Homemade Rhubarb Juice ~ Recipe

We are still swimming in rhubarb around here as our plants just keep giving and giving :) So I thought that I would share again with you my favorite way to make a rhubarb juice which is such a wonderful summertime treat :)

The kids and I filled an entire laundry basket heaping to the top with fresh rhubarb stalks to bring into the house for stewing and of course once it is cut it's best to use it up right away so I got busy washing them up and trimming off any dirty spots.

This is so super easy to make and even if you only have a little bit of rhubarb you probably have enough to make at least one special batch :)

Cut up 6 cups of fresh rhubarb stalks into 1 - 2 inch pieces and place in a heavy bottomed sauce pot. Add 8 cups of water, 2 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 or 3 nice thick slices of lemon and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes when the rhubarb has completely gone mushy.

Let the syrup cool and then strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a jar. You will have a gorgeous pink liquid and you can eat the boiled rhubarb to! The stewed rhubarb is so sweet and tasty that the children love to eat it warm straight from the sieve :) Usually there isn't a stitch of mushy rhubarb left when we're done but since I made so much this year I shared it with the dog and the cow *grin*.

I got some great new jars this spring to that I couldn't wait to use and this seemed to be the perfect time. They have rubber stoppers that you clamp down tightly and we've filled them quite a few times with rhubarb syrup to take along camping with us or for a picnic by the pond.

The rest of the juice I canned in my mason canning jars and some of it I froze as well. If you want to can the rhubarb juice all you need to do is wash up some of your larger canning jars and pour the boiling hot juice straight from the pot after you've strained it into your jars and then screw on your lids with your canning seals heated up just like if you were making jam :) So far I have about a dozen quart jars to last us through the winter and 7 wine bottles full in the freezer. It's going to be so much fun to be able to pull them out in the dead of winter and enjoy a little bit of spring :)

To finish off your yummy rhubarb juice you can mix 1 part syrup with two parts water or for a fizzy spritzer you can use a sparkling water like Pellagrino instead plain water for a real treat. Personally that's my favorite way to drink it and it is so refreshing on a hot day.

Have fun making some of your own!

Hugs,
Rosina


PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop :)

Mouthwatering Rhubarb Pie ~ Recipe

Rhubarb season is in full swing and there is no shortage of it around here! We've been eating it in muffins, cakes and now pie :) The tartness of the rhubarb mixed with a good dose of sugar makes for a mouth watering combination. If you're not crazy about a sweet pie then a warm slice of rhubarb pie might change your mind. The tart bite of the rhubarb counteracts the sweet and melds together perfectly.

Pull out your food processor and start feeding in fresh stalks from your rhubarb plant. The amount of sliced rhubarb you need will depend on the size of your pie plate so pull out an empty pie plate and start filling it with your sliced rhubarb until you have a really heaping dish full. It will shrink as it cooks so more is better than not enough!

I have quite a deep pie plate so I used about 10 cups of sliced rhubarb while my mom can only squeeze about 8 cups into hers so using your pie plate will give you the perfect amount :)

Once you have all of your rhubarb sliced and measured out put it into a large bowl and add:

1 1/2 cups sugar
6 heaping Tbsp. minute tapioca
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 egg lightly beaten

and mix all of it thoroughly together. If you are worried that it's to much sugar, don't. You could cut it back a bit but I wouldn't take away to much. You need that sweet to keep you from puckering up to much when you take that first bite *grin*.

I know that lots of people use flour as a thickener in their pies to help all of those juices set but I really like to use tapioca because you don't have to worry about getting any lumps. It's just that easy!

Now that you have your rhubarb all mixed up, pour it into your pie plate that is lined with an unbaked pastry shell for the bottom of your pie.

Tuck a few dabs of unsalted butter on top of your rhubarb filling and cover with another sheet of your pastry. Pinch, roll, or tuck the ends of your pastry tightly together to help seal in all of that rhubarb goodness and to finish it off you can sprinkle a little bit of sugar over the top of your pastry. I also like to take a sharp knife and cut in a few slits across the center of my pastry to let steam escape as it cooks.

Place in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit for the first 15 minutes and then turn your oven down to 350 degrees fahrenheit after that and continue cooking for another hour.

Mmm, mmm!

You will know your pie is good and ready to come out of the oven when your pastry has browned up, you can hear it bubbling and some of the juices are starting to escape :)

It's always a good idea to put a sheet of foil or parchment paper underneath your pie as it cooks because more often than not there will be a little bit of delicious sweetness that escapes and drips out of your pie. This makes clean up a cinch!

If you can keep yourself from cutting into your rhubarb pie while it's hot it will set up beautifully and the pieces will come out nice and solid. Of course we couldn't help but dip into our pie while it was still hot so we made a bit of a mess of ours but it was so worth it *grin*.

Enjoy!
Rosina

PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop

Rhubarb

Rhubarb season is finally here and those bright red and juicy stalks are beckoning me *grin*.

The extended cool and wet weather we have had this spring has really allowed them to burst from the ground with gusto and I found a giant bloom on one of my plants!

Rhubarb blooms are really pretty when they open but I want my plants to continue to produce for a little while longer so I broke it off. The kids brought it into the house and we'll see if we can force it to open in a jar of water :)

The leaves of the plants are poisonous so you can't eat them but they make a wonderful natural insect repellent for deterring cabbage worms, aphids and other things. Just throw a bunch of leaves into a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Pour the strained liquid into a spray bottle and treat any plants that have buggy problems!

I think for now we'll just enjoy some of the raw stalks dipped in a little bit of sugar. A yummy way to enjoy this tart treat :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Spring Blooms

Some of the pretty blooms that are out around the yard.

You've got to love chives! Deliciously edible green stalks and if left to bloom gorgeous lilac blooms will appear that are not only pretty to look at but add a nice spicy kick to salads :)

Volunteer Lupins that have self seeded themselves all along the gravel driveway. These beauties just love to reproduce themselves and love poor soil. Don't try to dig up a mature plant though for transplanting. They have a tap root like a dandelion and don't take kindly to being moved. Start them by seed and they will double and triple in numbers all by themselves the following years :)

A wild Columbine or Aquilegia that we found growing in the hay field. Aquilegia is derived from the latin word aquilinum which means 'eagle like' because the spurs on the ends of the flowers are compared to the talons of an eagle. I just love the native species but you've got to see the hybridized doubles. They have the prettiest petals that look just like layers of petticoats :)

I can't believe it but our rhubarb is already starting to go to seed! They have these very tall spikes covered with little white flowers and if you let it finish blooming it will actually produce seeds. Yes, you can grow rhubarb from seed!!! My mom has quite a few pots of them growing right now from last years seed and I must say they are growing at a very vigorous rate to. I'm going to pinch off the bloom though as I want to keep producing yummy stalks of rhubarb to eat *grin*.

What is flowering in your yard right now?
~ Rosina

Rhubarb Spritzer

Rhubarb has done it again! Today I made a big batch of delicious rhubarb syrup which is just perfect for a tasty summertime drink :)

This is so super easy to make. Chunk up 6 cups of fresh rhubarb stalks and place in a heavy bottomed sauce pot. Add 5 cups of water, 2 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 nice thick slices of lemon and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes when the rhubarb has completely gone mushy.

Let the syrup cool and then strain through a fine mesh sieve into a jar. You will have a gorgeous pink liquid and you can eat the boiled rhubarb to! I had quite the chuckle this afternoon as I told my mom about making the syrup and that there wasn't one stitch of rhubarb left. The kids had eaten it all up *grin*.

To finish off your yummy rhubarb spritzer you will need a bottle of sparkling water. I love to use Pellegrino. We don't like to have ours to sweet so we use 1 part syrup and 2 parts Pellegrino for a light and refreshing drink. It's like having a soda but without the ingredients you can't pronounce *grin*.

Can't wait to take this on our next picnic!
~ Rosina

Rosy Red Rhubarb

Mmmm, I just love rhubarb! It's so good in jam, compote, pies, cobblers and more! My husband actually loves to eat it raw dipped in a bit of sugar. A little bit to tart for me that way but a great treat :)

Our rhubarb plants are exploding with rosy red stalks waiting to be eaten so I've collected quite an arm load that is sitting in the sink waiting for me. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with it tomorrow. Perhaps a pie or even some syrup that makes a very refreshing drink.

I've got a whole wheat and oat pastry recipe kicking around that I'm just dying to try out so I'm thinking that there just might be a pie in my future *grin*.

~ Rosina

Pictures Around The Farm ~ Spring Has Sprung

Just when I thought that we would escape any form of winter this year it went and tried to snow today! Thankfully it was only a dusting of snow and the rain & wind quickly swept it away but it is icy cold out there and it's threatening all of the signs of spring that are popping up everywhere :)

I've been sewing up bundles of my reusable cloth snack & sandwich bags for the last couple of days to fill the larger orders that came in earlier this week and I always find that when you know you have to do it you can think of a million other things that need doing *grin*. So now that I got the last of them shipped off today I can't wait to tackle the new spring dress I'm working on for my daughter!

It's a really cute jumper pattern but I'm adding in a couple of pleats to both the front and backside of it and sewing in a bright contrasting fabric inside the pleats. It's a challenge as I've never done it before but I've bot my pleats measured out and figured how much fabric I'm going to need for my contrast colors and it has been calling my name :)

Besides dreaming of sewing projects I've been planning my new raised bed that hubby is going to make for me and a new potato bed that I want to create :) The tomato seeds are in need of planting and by the end of the month I'll be able to get my broccoli started and soon after plant the peas outdoors. Time is moving swiftly!

We found the rhubarb in the above photo is starting to poke through the mulch again and all of the plum & apple trees are coming out in leaves already. If the snow and frozen weather holds off a little while longer we just might have a bumper crop of fruit this year as there a tons of bees buzzing around just itching to get some pollinating done *grin*.

I just love this last photo :) My son was fixing his bike the other day and the darn cat just wouldn't leave him alone. Nothing like a furry helper getting in the way!

What's sprouting and blooming around your home right now?

~ Rosina