The small plant that I dug up from my parents' place last year and divided into four tiny plants for our garden has grown immensely! I've baked two wonderful rhubarb desserts in the past two days and you can barely tell that I've been harvesting the rhubarb! All this from a plant that could barely yield enough to make one 8x8" pan of rhubarb crisp in one summer! Let's just say the previous owners of my parents' place shouldn't have planted it under a row of mature pines in full shade if they wanted to eat rhubarb! I plan on freezing some rhubarb, make punch to freeze and have on hand to serve through out the winter, make strawberry-rhubarb jam and bake some yummy desserts. We especially like to make strawberry rhubarb pie and freeze the unbaked pies, so that we can bake them in winter and have fresh pie! If anyone out there wants some rhubarb, please contact us and we can work out some kind of deal for it. Check out my recipe blog for some great rhubarb recipes as I intend to add more recipes in the coming days.
This Mom is always on the look out for new recipes particularly healthy ones. Since spring is around the corner, I'm starting to plan my garden for 2011. We're planning on trying to grow our own sweet potatoes for the first time. Last year red kidney beans were the new addition in the garden. I'm still hoping that this may be the year for growing watermelons! So far the melons have either been killed by frost or drowned out by rain. Any tips out there for growing watermelons? I'm planning on planting corn (hopefully the deer stay away instead of eating our whole crop like last year), green beans, peas, kidney beans, cucumbers, onions, lots of tomatoes (last year was a bad year for tomatoes), green and maybe yellow zucchini, and Swiss chard. I'm also thinking about planting kale for the first time. Last year we had so many pumpkins off one vine, we'll see if we plant another or just use what I've frozen from 2010. Anybody have any other favourites that they grow in their gardens? I love trying new things and also learning to preserve the produce so our family can enjoy it during the off season as well. As I think of gardens; what would you be looking for at a farmer's market? I'm thinking of selling extra produce from my gardens but need to know what people are interested in!
You may notice the "Laura's Recipe Blog" link to the right - this is my website where I write down our favorite recipes so I don't have to hunt down my cookbook in the craziness before mealtime. Most of our meals use a lot of ingredients that I grow in my garden at home; if you have lots of zucchini or pumpkin and don't know what to do with it all, do a search and you'll find all sorts of main courses and desserts that are delicious!
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Laura Friesen
"Mommy's a goood cooker!!" - according to our oldest. Laura's Recipe Blog
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June 2011
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