More Rhubard Love

So it has been so funny. I told my sister I made a Rhubarb Pie for my Mom and she said please make one for my husband. There seems to be love for this fruit/vegetable. I think this plant is beautiful in the garden, plus my Dad loved it, so it is a must in my garden.


I decided to do a different recipe for Randy to take to his mom and Dad tomorrow. Rhubarb Bread Pudding



Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups half and half
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
8 ounces whole wheat bread, cut into pieces
3 cups chopped fresh rhubarb
Zest of orange
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees . Spray an 8x8 baking dish worth cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk half amend half, eggs, vanilla and sugar together. Add bread pieces and submerge them into the liquid. Add chopped Rhubarb, and orange

Empty into baking dish and press down. Cover with foil and bake for,40 minutes. Uncover and add brown sugar and bake for 15 minutes until it sets

Reports are coming in that is is wonderful. So for all the Rhubard lovers ....have at it.

So it has just been too crazy of a couple months. I have decided that I will come sit every night for about 15 minutes or more and listen to the birds and feel the love of my land. The dogs enjoy it. And the cats come around as well. It is as if everyone is saying look what we have it is beautiful ; even if all the weeds are not pulled and the gardens are not perfect.
Life is good
So here is the view from my chair tonight. I am blessed.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Why I grow Rhubarb

Rhubarb was one of my fathers and fathers-in-laws favorite vegetables. Therefore we have always had it my garden. I think it is beautiful In the garden. But not overly fond of its taste.



This a perennial vegetable, that is usually used as a fruit in desserts and jams. You only eat the stalks, they have a rich, tart, sour flavor. The beautiful leaves of this plant are poisonous, but are very beneficial to the compost pile.

I harvested a large amount yesterday. So I need to do something with them.


I made a pie for my father-in- law. They loved it. (Recipe below) My mom wants a pie as well. Plus now my oldest sister wants me to send her something made with rhubarb for her husband.

A couple weeks ago, I made a rhubarb pound coffee cake, so I may make that again for my mom and my sister's husband. Then what do I do with the rest??? Stay tuned I will let you know.




Fresh Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 1/3 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 recipe for a 9 inch double crust pie

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate Heap rhubarb over this mixture sprinkle with the remaining sugar and flour. for with small pieces of butter and cover with the top crust
3. Place pie on the lowest rack in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 40 minutes


I will blog the Rhubarb Pound Cake soon. Enjoy. I would love to hear your recipes for Rhubarb.

Don't Ditch The "Ditch Lilies"

My Father had a love of these Lilies!!  They have been called everything form "Ditch Lilies" to "Road Lilies" to "Tiger Lilies" to the common "Orange Lilies". I have even heard some people call them "_____ Lilies".

There Latin name is hemerocallis fulva, they are technically a form of daylily, but a different species and a breed of their own!  These guys will grow anywhere and give new meaning to the word hardy.

These late spring bloomers are resistant to anything including "Round Up". They will grow in most any soil, sun or shade, and can live through any drought! They are the survivors of the flower world.

I love driving out in the country this time of year and seeing all the "Ditch Lilies" along the roadsides. It seems to me they exist where houses once may have stood or gardens may have once existed but only the "Ditch Lilies" have weathered the storm of the years!

My father loved them because we had a home in Brown County Indiana that had horrific clay soil and hordes of deer.  Much to my Dad's delight they not only grew and bloomed ...they also spread everywhere; they were not discouraged or slowed by the obstacles put before them.

When I moved here over 30 years ago, I of course brought a few. Now I have tons....but I have put them to great use. I have them along fence rows, on the perimeter of the woods, and in the fields, but they keep spreading. I have even just dug up clumps and dumped them along the fence row and voila they survived!

My latest adventure was to move them from my vegetable garden. Although some parts of daylilies are edible, these tigers were taking over valuable space. I had the perfect spot for them over by the orchard where some stone and rock had been dumped. I am certain that this pile of rocks will be like candy to the tubers that these plants spread from and they will flourish. They will be lovely this time of year as I pick the raspberries and now I have more room for vegetables in the Potager Garden.

Moral of this long story.....Don't Ditch the "Ditch Lilies".......every plant has beauty and worth, in the right spot!

Volunteers Help Us Bloom

Come one come all. This Saturday we are having a work session the Tim McClure Botanical Gardens. We need anyone and everyone. The gardens are looking better than ever and is will be our final push to mulch and prepare for the summer.

No prior experience needed. This is a great chance to learn about maintaining a garden, plants, herbs, and much more.

I have even heard a rumor that there might be some "Freebies"



I hope you will come help us. Volunteers help us bloom. If you need any additional information just email me:

Beckykirts@gmail.com

Ramps

Athens Georgia has introduced me to so many great eats. But Ramps have by far been the best find. "Allium tricoccum " ( commonly known as Ramps) is a spring vegetable, a perennial wild onion with a twist It has a strong garlic -like odor but with an onion taste.

These babies are only available for about a month and only in certain mountains. This happens to be the month when we have been traveling back and forth to Athens to visit our daughter and son-in-law. I love the food scene in Athens. Many restaurants always have ramps on the menu during this time. We love them.

I have never been able to find them but last weekend BINGO. What a great Mothers Day gift.



On our way home we found a stand that was selling these treasures. It was close to Crosby TN, close to where a Ramp Festival has been hosted on the first weekend in May since 1954. Our vendor told me that the ramps were near the end and that many chefs from Athens had been up last weekend to buy them and that the festival was great. So next year it is on my calendar.

We have enjoyed our ramps all week but a friend from WV told me that if we ate too many we would smell bad and lose our friends.

I think it is worth the threat.

BOGI

If you are an animal lover as I am and treat all my babies as part of your family losing a cat is a very hard thing. Yesterday I made the most difficult decision to put my beloved Bogi to sleep. Bogi was 20 years old. We bought him for Kalee when we moved to our house on Colony Drive. Someone told her the house was haunted so I convinced her that animals would not go into haunted rooms. Thus we bought Bogi to sleep with her.



Flash forward 20 some years.... Kalee's perspective husband. Comes to ask for her hand in marriage. My husband said YES but only if Bogi goes with them. That did not last long a they have two little dogs and Bogi missed Kentucky.

Bogi loved Fancy Feast. Every morning he would come to my room and howl until I fed him his can of Fancy Feast. So my advice is to to buy stock in Fancy feast as it will be dropping. (Bogi had 2 cans a day everyday)

Bogi had thyroid, kidney, and an ulcerated eye. I felt very strongly the quality of his life was gone. So now he is with Tasha, my Tibetan Mastiff, he loved her and would sleep on her back.

Rest in peace my baby. (Thanks so much to Tiffany and Kresin Vets for the love and understanding. They helped improve his life greatly over the last year)