Rhubarb for my birthday

My rhubarb grows in a sheltered spot on the east side of my house, where it gets morning sun and afternoon shade and no wind. On my birthday last week I decided to spend the morning doing whatever I wanted instead of going to work and what I felt like doing the most was harvesting something from my yard and baking something with it. Time was limited so I made rhubarb-strawberry crisp.

I gave up using recipes for crisp once I realized that for the topping you really only need oats and butter and sugar, and for the fruit you just need sugar and/or a jar of homemade jam. I just measure a few cups of oats and rub in a stick of butter and about a half cup of brown sugar with a bit of whatever spice I'm in the mood for; last week it was cinnamon. In the buttered baking dish I put the rhubarb and strawberries, cut into bite sized pieces, and then dusted sugar over the whole thing, and then poured over it a couple cups of plum jam left from last year. The oat topping goes all over the top and into the oven it goes at 350 degrees, until the topping is all brown and the fruit is bubbling and tender. MMM!

This week the rhubarb will be made into a pie, since my family loves it even more than crisp. The principle is the same: fruit mixed with some sugar and jam. But for the crust, well, I make pie crust with flour, butter, an egg, and some vinegar or lemon juice. I found this recipe in one of my mom's old cookbooks and it works for me better than anything I've ever tried. For a single crust, it works out to about a cup of flour with 6 tablespoons of butter, 1 egg, and a tablespoon of vinegar, mixed up in the food processor and then dumped onto a sheet of wax paper to roll out. I usually use a bit of flour under and over the pie dough to keep it from sticking to the paper or the rolling pin, and I use the wax paper so that I can lift the whole shebang and flip it over into the pie pan before filling it with fruit and then again on the top of the pie.

I think the appearance of rhubarb satisfies some deep inner need for tart, crisp, fresh food, that signals the end of our starchy and boring potatoes and carrot winter diet and the beginning of summer's wonderful juiciness. Every house ought to have its own little rhubarb patch.

Once I get over the need for crisp and pie I'll start using it for other things, like as a substitute for apples with cooked pork, or as an ingredient in cake. Rhubarb salsa or relish might be another possibility; I'll keep you posted.

BTW the chicken coop is almost done and our chickens will arrive in a few weeks! And the beehives are literally humming with activity. More on that next time.