Rhubarb Goldberg Machine

The strawberries in our front garden were just starting to blush.  Meanwhile, five pounds of rhubarb were awaiting my hand.  So on my day off, in 80+ New England weather, I became the Rhubarb Goldberg Machine, slicing, dicing, boiling, simmering, pickling, and baking.  I even broke some eggs and brought out the crushed red pepper and local honey.

Here are four new, original recipes using rhubarb without the tardy strawberries.  They are sweet, tangy, creamy, and tart.  Bread pudding, a classic butter tart, and more to follow...

Gluten-Free/Vegetarian/Vegan Option

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Rhubarb Compote

Taste of France

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2 1/2 cups rhubarb, sliced 1/2” thick (about 5 stalks)

1/4 cup plus 2 tbs. water

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbs. local honey (optional for vegan recipe)

2 tsp. corn starch

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

1 tsp. lemon zest

Dissolve corn starch with 2 tbs. water.  Mix with all ingredients except nuts.  Heat in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Stir in nuts and cook 5 more minutes.  Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Gluten-Free/Vegan

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Rhubarb Pickles

Taste of Earth

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1 1/2 cups white vinegar

3/4 cups sugar

7 whole cloves

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper 

10 stalks of rhubarb, cut to 3” lengths

2 pint-size mason jars

In small sauce pan, dissolve sugar into vinegar and bring mixture to boil.  Add cloves and red pepper and simmer 10 minutes.  Keep two sanitized mason jars in a bowl of hot water in preparation.  Fill each jar with half the rhubarb stalks.  Pour vinegar mixture over stalks and secure lids.  (Leave a half-inch of space if canning.  Can in hot water bath ten minutes.)  For immediate use, let cool on towel on counter, then refrigerate overnight.

Vegetarian

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Rhubarb Goldberg Machine 

Taste of Earth

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1 1/2 cup unbleached flour

1/2 cup white sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 cup strawberry yogurt

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup rhubarb stalks, sliced 1/4” thick 

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/4 cup sliced almonds

This muffin has it all, but bakes light and refreshing.  Melt butter.  Whisk in eggs, then yogurt and buttermilk.  Sift dry ingredients.  Mix in rhubarb, oatmeal, and nuts.  Stir wet ingredients into dry until just moistened.  Fill 12 greased muffin tins.  Bake at 400ºF 20-25 minutes.

Vegetarian

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Creamy Cold Rhubarb Soup 

Taste of Norway

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5 rhubarb stalks, peeled (reserving peel for stock) and sliced 

     1/4” thick

3 small pieces of cinnamon bark (or substitute cassia)

3 cups water

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp.chopped lemon thyme leaves, reserving stems

1 tsp. chopped mint leaves, reserving stems

1 cup buttermilk 

Combine rhubarb peelings, cinnamon, sugar, herb stems, and water in medium sauce pan.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Strain liquid into bowl, compost remaining solids, then return liquid to pan.  Add rhubarb pieces, bring to boil again, then remove from heat.  Stir in buttermilk.  Cool completely.  Serve cold, garnished with chopped mint.

Chives and Spring Rolls

The chives are blooming!  These pretty wild specimens I moved into my garden seem to be doing a good job deterring seed bugs and slugs from my strawberries (in foreground).  But they are so much more...  As I write this, I have 15 flower heads soaking in white vinegar to use in future recipes and dressings.  It's easy: Take a nice glass bottle – these I salvaged from grenadine syrup, a fancy olive oil, and a second-hand shop.  

  

Wash and dry the bottle and keep warm.  Fill bottle with white vinegar to measure, then heat vinegar to just under boiling.  Stuff bottle with flower heads, then slowly add warmed vinegar.  Seal tightly, then let infuse at least two weeks.  Use on fish, in dressings, or to make sushi.

Meanwhile, those chive stems need not go to waste!  Chop them and use in dressings, on salads, fish, eggs, or the following recipe for spring rolls:

Gluten-Free/Vegan and Wild Option

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Spring Rolls

Taste of Vietnam

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2 oz. rice vermicelli

8 chinese cabbage leaves

16 mint leaves, plus garnish

3 tbs. cilantro

3 (wild) chive stems

1 carrot, grated

2 radish, grated

1 stalk of rhubarb, sliced fine

2 tsp. white sugar

2 tbs. white vinegar

1 cup small local cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp, chopped (optional)

8-10 rice wrappers

Chop cabbage, herbs, and scallions fine.  Combine with other vegetables, sugar, and vinegar.  Bring water to a boil, remove from heat, and add rice vermicelli until soft, about 8 minutes.  Drain, cool with cold water, and drain again.  Cut into inch-length pieces using kitchen shears.  Mix well with vegetables (and shrimp, if using).   Soak rice wrappers one at a time for about 30 seconds.  Place about half a cup of mixture near top of the corner of the wrapper, fold over, and roll tightly.  Tuck in sides half-way through rolling, and roll until end.  Serve chilled, with mint leaves for garnish.   Makes 8-10 rolls.

Nasturti-YUMS!

Nasturtiums are one of the easiest and most versatile crops around.  The seeds, leaves, buds and flowers are all edible.  Nasturtiums just require well-drained soil and some sun, and will grow prolifically.  Overfertilized or shady areas may not develop many flowers.  The sunniest locations produce the spiciest flowers. 

 

The seeds are large, so it’s a great choice for young helpers to plant.  Just poke a hole an inch down and about 12 inches apart, and have your helper fill the holes.  Cover and water thoroughly.   Sprouts emerge about a week later.  I like using them at the edge of my raised beds, where they cascade beautifully.  They also are a great “trap crop” to lure aphids, flea beetles, slugs, and cabbage worms away from other crops.  For this reason, they are good companion plants for tomatoes, radishes, cabbage, and cucumbers. (Last year, aphids covered the nasturtiums in one bed, but didn’t touch the tomatoes.  I later found lady bug larva all over them.)   If you want nasturtiums for pest control and for eating, plant a lot.

 

Use fresh, organically-grown flowers and leaves on salads to add a peppery, watercress spike of flavor to salads.   Place a cup of leaves, buds, and flowers in a clean, warm, tight-sealing glass jar and pour a pint of just-boiling white or apple vinegar over it, letting blend immerse three weeks for a zesty vinegar.  Strain out spent plants.  Another option is to chop flowers finely and mix with cream cheese and dill to serve with smoked salmon or in cucumber sandwiches.  Some people even stuff the blossoms themselves.  Save seeds or buds and brine in 2 tbs. salt to one pint of water for 2 days, rinse, and place in a clean and warm glass jar, covering with vinegar heated just to boiling.  Let sit a week and enjoy as a substitute for capers.

 

Defining America

Looking through the Friday flyers this Saturday morning while eating Yukon Gold home fries with oregano and curry from the garden and a fried egg laid by an Americauna chicken that lives in Rehoboth, I notice a few trends.  The pile is modest, since I'm on the "no junk mail" list.  I peruse the grocery flyers and coupons, mostly full of items I don't buy.  I open a bill.  Then on to the two hardware store flyers, both national chains.

The first one has a variety of grills on the cover, along with various chemicals to kill ants.  Bottom center are American flags for sale.  "Dear America," they say, "please accept our char-grilled offering."  Turn the page, and its grub killer, grub killer, grub killer.  Funny, I thought the grubs were pupating this time of year.  Well, you may have 2-3 more weeks to get them, so hurry!  After that, what're all those chemicals going to do, sitting in the soil?  The rest of the flyer is lawn care, lawn seed, motorized mowers, plastic bird feeders, weed killer, and disposable paint rollers.  I sigh and add the flyer to the recycle pile.

On to the next national chain.  Wow.  Pretty solar lights.  Plants.  Okay, I'm going to turn the page...  The flyer is set up like a magazine.  There are articles on how to decorate and design inside and outside.  There is no VOC paint, a bird feeder to make with the kids using recycled materials and a kit from their store, a project detailing how to build an outside island for family gathering, which includes cloth towels, a recycling station, and yeah, plastic forks and plates, but wow!  They wouldn't put this much effort into advertising this project if they didn't think people would literally buy into it.  While companies can start trends, most see a trend or need and offer to fill it.  I'm hoping that this is what's happening here.  People want to live greener.

My own deck features a second-hand plastic table we put a tablecloth over.  We store my daughter's toys underneath.  The previous owners built in seating, which is divine.  Some day, I may make cushions for it.  Last year, I repaired and repainted the roll-out awning and replaced the front door with a more energy-efficient one.  For now, I'm not making any big plans for renovating.  I will probably improve the gate on the deck.  Maybe add seating around the fire pit.  Definitely organize all the dead wood we've gathered or cut down.  At least it's good to see some greener possibilities.

A chain of events is occurring.  The recession has made people think, "Do I really need this?  Can I fix what I have or buy second-hand?  Can I make it?"  The supermarket cashier asked my husband where we got our mesh produce bags.  Multiple companies, such as Terracycle and Eco-Fi, are making goods from trash.  The first solar-powered plane flew this week.  Are we lawns and propane and bug killer?  A student showed me six inchworms she found in the schoolyard, gingerly putting them back in their home.  How shall we define America now?

Plight of the Bumble Bee

Plight 

    of the

    Bumble Bee 

Bee boxes are a great family project to teach children the importance of bees in our ecosystem.  Bees, much like frogs, are a kind of “Environmental Early Warning System” and world-wide bees have been disappearing. Bumblebees are responsible for pollinating about 15 % of all the crops grown in the U.S. , while bees in general pollinate a third of U.S. crops.  Mason bees are great pollinators of orchards, travelling to multiple trees.  In the wild, birds and bears depend on bumblebees for berries and fruits.  You can help by setting up a bee box to provide shelter and nesting locations for solitary bee species, such as Mason and Bumblebees. The adult bees do not live in the structure, but lay their eggs in pre-existing holes.  They are called “mason” bees because after laying their eggs, they seal the holes with mud or clay.  In the wild, they use holes in tree trunks left by wood-boring beetles or birds.  While these bees produce only enough honey to feed themselves, they will fertilize plants and trees in your neighborhood.  Mason and Bumble bees are friendly and docile and rarely sting. (Just don’t trap them or get them in your clothes.)  Plus, without a queen to protect, solitary bees do not swarm! 

The causes of colony collapse disorder are still unknown, with the latest research suggesting a combined infection of both a fungus and virus as the likely cause.  (That doesn’t rule out pesticides, lack of native plants, mites, and cell phone signals.)  By providing a habitat for our solitary native bees through shelter and plants, we are insuring our future food supply.  There are plenty of bee houses on the market today, but if you would like to build your own, use untreated wood and be careful not to use pesticides/insecticides near their home.  On a four by four inch block in a length of at least a foot, drill 5/16^th inch holes about one inch apart.  Staggering the next row will allow you to fit more.  I’ve also tried this with 2”X12” boards, drilling into the 2” side, then screwing several boards together for a bee “condo”.  Although Mason bees are solitary, they don’t mind being close neighbors with other bees.   

In late fall, bee houses should be stored in a sheltered area, such as a garage or shed.  Houses should be cleaned in a mild bleach solution to kill mites, as mites will infect and kill bees.

More plans can be found here: Build a Bee House

Baked Bunny Bao

Need a taste of spring for that special occasion?   This recipe is more challenging than most, but I hope the results are worth it.  I made these for May Day and another batch for Mother's Day.  I did try steaming them, but the flavors come out much stronger when they're baked.  Let me know how this recipe worked for you.  Kneading until elastic is key.  The second batch (not pictured) were a lot prettier.  Remember, don't overheat the Hollandaise.

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Baked Bunny Bao

Taste of China Meets France

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Bun:

4 cups unbleached flour

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

4 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2” cubes

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

1 cup milk

zest of one lemon

Hollandaise Sauce:

3 egg yolks (reserve whites for filling)

juice of one lemon

1 stick of unsalted butter, melted

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. white pepper

Filling: 

1/4 pound Black Forest ham, cut into 1/2” squares

1 egg plus egg whites, poached or fried and chopped

3 tbs. wild garlic chives, or two asparagus, finely chopped

Traditionally steamed, these Chinese buns are baked until just golden, adding a buttery crunch to the lemony dough and savory filling.  For buns, sift together dry ingredients except for yeast.  Cut in butter.  Warm milk to 130ºF on stove and dissolve yeast.  Stir in lemon zest and add milk mixture to dry mixture, mixing until all flour is incorpoarted.  Knead on floured surface until elastic, about 15 minutes.  Return to bowl and cover with hot wet towel, about 40 minutes to let dough rise.

To make Hollandaise sauce, have all ingredients ready.  In double boiler or small sauce pan placed inside larger sauce pan filled with about 2” of water, heat water until barely simmering.  Whisk yolk and lemon together, then add to boiler, whisking constantly until the thickness of custard, about 2 minutes.  (Overheated yolks will scramble.) Gradually add melted butter, whisking rapidly after each addition.  Remove from heat.  Stir in salt and pepper.

Pound down dough and form into 3” log.  Cut into 15 slices and roll each slice into a 5” round.  Divide ham, egg, and chives or asparagus between rounds.  Add one tsp. of Hollandaise sauce to each, reserving the rest for dipping.  Pinch each round closed, using a drop or two of water if dough won’t stick.  Turn bun over and mold into an “egg” shape.  For “bunnies”, use kitchen or herb sheers to cut two ears from center of bun toward first third of bun, careful not to cut through dough into filling.  Make eyes by piercing dough with end of chopstick.  Brush bunnies and/or eggs with about one tablespoon of melted butter.  Bake on parchment or greased cooking tray at 425ºF for 20 minutes.  Serve on assortment of edible greens and flowers, such as mesclun and dandelion greens, dill, violets, and nasturtiums.  Makes about 15 servings. 

German readers

Seeing as I'm getting traffic from Germany to this site (as well as the Netherlands and France), I'll post one of the German/Hungarian recipes I came up with.  It's loosely based on my brother-in-law's recipe and got even my husband to eat Brussels sprouts.  Enjoy!

Gluten-Free/Vegan Option

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Hungary for Sprouts!

Taste of Germany/Hungary

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1 pt. Brussels sprouts

1 carrot

1/2 yellow onion

1 cup broth (vegetable, chicken, or beef)

1/4 tsp. each salt, white pepper, lemon thyme

1 tsp. brown mustard

Meat: 4 sausage links, or 10 slices of bacon, or 1 1/2 cups of textured vegetable protein

Oil for cooking

Wash Brussels sprouts, picking off yellow or discolored leaves.  Halve each and slice halves thinly.  Peel and grate carrot.  Set both aside.  Compost scraps.  (I feed them to our Guinea pigs.)  Heat oil in large sauté pan over medium heat.  Open up sausage links, if using, and cook meat through.  Or cook bacon on stove, using a tablespoon of the fat to start onions.  Or cook vegetable protein until hot.  Set meat aside.  Dice onion and sauté in same pan 3-5 minutes, until translucent.  Add sprouts and carrots and cook 1-2 minutes, stirring well.  Pour in broth and add spices and mustard, stirring well.   Cook 10-15 minutes, testing sprouts for sweetness and cooking until just soft.   Serve with oven-roasted potatoes. 

The Fertile Underground

My first "garden" was a five gallon bucket precariously balanced on a ledge outside my third story apartment window in a very urban supposedly "artsy" neighborhood in the west end of Providence.  The district promised to become the "it" spot.  The bucket contained one glorious sunflower.  Mostly what I saw growing was trash.  Occasionally I could hear my neighbor's illegal rooster.  Sometimes I would see storyteller Len Cabral walking down the street.  (We later met through our church.)  The word "community" was tossed around a lot, but I did not see much forward motion in the 13 months I lived there.

Later, I lived for seven years in another urban neighborhood and my tiny back yard became what my friends called the "Providence Oasis", full of flowers and herbs, buzzing with blue and purple bees, bedecked with huge black and yellow "Charlotte's Web" spiders, and mantids hiding on the leaves.  It wasn't enough sun to properly grow vegetables, but we had fresh and dried herbs in large supply.

Today, I have the luxury of a 1/4 acre and lots of sun.  We grow many foods, can, dry, and freeze them, and donate bumper crops through AmpleHarvest.org.  Now the news and media have spread the word about the importance of local food for our health, the health of our planet, and the economy.  We that agree with them don't have to hide.  I'm excited to use my new mesh produce bags next time I shop, hoping like reusable shopping bags, they become the norm over plastic.  Plus, I want to shop less at chains but want the convenience of them.  Farms and farmers' markets are one of the few growing businesses in Rhode Island.  And it's not just the artists and hippies who frequent them.  Nor is it only the upper classes buying organic.

While there are local groceries that buy locally, now there will be a grocery that provides only local and sustainable foods.  I was at the opening of this new and long-awaited site, recently opened by the West Broadway Neighborhood Association.  As I drove down the street I used to take to that apartment with the one defiant sunflower, I saw three community gardens.  I talked with people there: home gardeners, parents with young children, older folk, all looking forward to getting healthy food locally and sustainably.  With funding efforts underway, The Fertile Underground hopes to open this June.  They've been running the Pearl Street community garden for three years, which will supply the "store brand" for the grocery.  They will also be creating a garden in the back, a cafe with sustainable coffee, and "pick your own herbs."  They've established relationships with local farmers and dairies to stock the store and are open to more local vendors.  The store currently is walled with local art.  When I told them about my cookbook using local foods, they were very interested.  (A book release there may be in the works...)

A grocery with all local and sustainable foods has been a long time in coming.  I think this could be a very good thing.  But don't take my word for it.  Go check out their location at 1577 Westminster Street, Providence RI 02909 and follow their progress at Kick Starter.

Cinco de Mayo

While it's way too early to be using fresh salsa in this recipe (if you're using local produce), this is an easy recipe the whole family will love for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack.  My family devours the batch in three days and my four year old daughter is already asking for more.  Since May 5th is Cinco de Mayo, why not add a taste of Mexico to your day?  It's also Children's Day in Japan, where they fly koinobori (carp streamers) to celebrate the strength of their children.  Originally, the streamers had been the family colors to let the Samurai warriors know when they were getting close to home as they returned from battle.  What better way to help build strong bodies by sneaking in a load of vegetables to your kids!  Use a good quality salsa for this recipe.  I prefer Archer Farms with black beans, but versions with corn or just your classic tomato, pepper, and onion work well too.  Comerse!

Vegetarian

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Fiesta Muffins

Taste of Mexico

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1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 cup wheat flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. oregano

2 eggs

1 cup homemade or good-quality salsa

1 cup of washed and shredded zucchini, summer 

     squash, or spaghetti squash*

1/2 cup oil

1 cup shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese*

A savory choice for breakfast, parties, or a side dish.  It’s also a great way to sneak veggies into your kids!  Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Sift dry ingredients.  In separate bowl, mix wet.  Add wet to dry.  Grease 2 muffin trays and fill cups 3/4 full.  Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Yield: 24 muffins.  

*Shred local squash and cheese on the same box grater.

Going Native

Oh look!  A butterfly bush!  You are so pretty!  You triple in size every year!  So you're invasive...

What's the big deal with non-native plants?  Many a New England yard is adorned with the "Asian Trio": Japanese Andromeda, Japanese Maple, and Forsythia.  Why?  They bloom early, are attractive and colorful, and hardy.  I took some cuttings from the forsythia that came with my yard and set them up on the eroding incline between my garage and my neighbor's driveway four feet below.  They established quickly, look pretty, and keep the soil from eroding along with the avalanche of acorns we get each year.

BUT...

Where invasive are concerned, they can ESCAPE.  They can invade by seed, stem, or rhizome, in your tires, on your shoes, on your pets, carried by birds...  Invasives can overgrow habitats, shade-out native species such as spring ephemerals, and out-compete natives, displacing the food source of many animals and insects.  Sure, general feeder animals will eat the bittersweet choking the swamp maple or the autumn olives occupying the disturbed earth behind a certain schoolyard, but what of the creatures that are more selective?  Monarch butterflies only eat milkweed, also laying their eggs there.  With loss of habitat due to development and the introduction of invasive species crowding the milkweed out, the Monarch is having a tough time.  Add to that the invasive Black Swallow Wort, which is in the same family as Milkweed and attracts the Monarch, but at a deadly price.  It is poisonous to the caterpillars.

 

Swamp Milkweed from twofrogs.com

 

Black Swallow Wort from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

The trio I mentioned are not invasive, but many non-native plants we put in our landscape are.  No native plants, no native insects, no food chain that leads up to us.  Animals cannot evolve fast enough to the rate of introduction.  The climate warming just a few degrees could mean the kudzu problem of the south could be ours (not so many) years down the road.  

What to do?  Here are three great sites for more information: Invasive Species  Noxious Weeds  RI Invasive Species Alternatives.  I have to admit, there is a butterfly bush in the school garden.  But there is also native milkweed, bee balm, Joe Pye weed, and others that attract native species.  I could replace the butterfly bush with a button bush or summer sweet, and still attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  I did install the mason and bumble bee condos this morning, but that is a post for the future.  I even started cutting down the honeysuckle this week, so my Liberty apple could make friends with my neighbor's crab apple.  Another fruit that will require our insect friends, the bees...

Look around.  Today, I got my second grade students to look.  Last week, they made preying mantids from paper tubes and bendy straws, painting them with "camouflage".  (You could make one too!  Press tube flat to cut small slits to slide straws into.  Our project is all tab and slot, not glue or tape.)  We discussed how animals hide and why.  In class, we examined a photocopied picture of a katydid and I had them draw it step-by-step, looking at the shapes, the sizes, the directions of its many parts.  Then we went outside, where I gave them three minutes to hide their mantis, three minutes to find someone else's, and five minutes to discuss who's was the hardest to find and why.  An unexpected surprise was finding a tiny unidentified golden insect with an upturned abdomen hiding inside one of the mantis sculptures.  After consulting Bug Guide, I determined it was the nymph stage of a walking stick, although not identical to the one pictured in the link.  Amazing!  The student found it because he was LOOKING.  Next week, they will draw real insects encased in lucite I secured with a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation, look this time with magnifying lenses.

Look around you.  You want children to discover a walking stick in the schoolyard, a Monarch outside their window?  Do you see the plants necessary for their habitat?  Start making room, start planting.

Taken by me in Providence, in a 30 sq.ft. garden.