Garden news

This was week three of the farmers market. Beef, pork, flowering plants, knives, and some salad greens were for sale. There is not yet a lot coming from gardens.

 One of the plants that does produce early is rhubarb. I doubt if rhubarb would be grown much if it matured late in the season. What makes it special is that it is available when very little else is. There was some rhubarb at the farmers market--the last of it was being sold as I was there.

 I use a lot of rhubarb, all of it in a very simple recipe for rhubarb crisp. Other than rhubarb, the ingredients are 3 parts oatmeal, one part sugar, one part flour, a pinch of salt, and a little vegetable oil.

 The other ingredient is rhubarb, naturally.

 Combine everything but the rhubarb, using a fork to mix them thoroughly. Because I have a lot of rhubarb, I make a big batch, with six cups of oatmeal.

 I cover the bottom of the pan with the mixture, then put a layer of rhubarb on top it it. The rhubarb is then covered with more mixture. I like to do about three layers of rhubarb.

 Here is the crisp ready for the oven.

 I cook at 355 for an hour and a half or so--until it is done or until I remember to turn off the oven. The result is shown below.

The same recipe works for peaches, apples, blueberries and cherries, and all of them are better than the rhubarb. If the fruit is sweet, I cut back on the sugar. With apples I like to substitute brown sugar for the white sugar and also add some cinnamon. If I have a small batch of fruit, I will bake it in the microwave, which gives it a completely different texture. I am sure people who know a bit about cooking can improve on my simple way of doing this.

While out and about today, I noticed that the corn is sprouting.

In addition to rhubarb, other spring plants that give a quick harvest are asparagus and also my Egyptian Walking Onions. The DeMotte area used to grow a lot of asparagus, but I do not think they do much any more.

It has been a slow week for me, so I am venturing into cooking. Actually, I used to post things occasionally on a cooking blog. (My posts are dessertsurvivor. Someone else is desertsurvivor.)

(I guess I am starting to repeat myself. I just found that I did almost the same post four years ago.)