Remarkable Rhubarb

Rhubarb is pretty impressive nutritionally. One cup of diced rhubarb has 26 calories, 6 grams of carbs, 2 grams fiber, 9.8 mg Vitamin C (16% DV), 105 mg Calcium (10% DV) and 351 mg Potassium (10% DV). Unfortunately it seems to be at its best when loaded down with sugar. I'm still looking for savory rhubarb recipes. I just came across "The Rhubarb Compendium" which is filled with recipes and information. I am especially interested in trying this page of recipes. The Pork with Rhubarb sauce sounds interesting. I will have to try a few of the recipes and report back on the results. I just have to save enough for a batch of rhubarb wine. I may well go from wondering what I'm going to do with all the rhubarb to wishing I had more to experiment with.

Today's harvest

I spent an enjoyable day with friends making (and snacking on) delicious butter and ice cream along with a bit of Sangria (homemade and awesome) and breads. I had to head back home to sleep before working the night shift tonight. After all the good but rich foods earlier today, supper was light and fresh from the garden. We have been picking quite a few hailstone and french breakfast radishes. The greens are also at their peak. All I needed to add was a dressing made out of lovage, basil, salad burnet and chives. It was good with a glass of rhubarbade ( made with stevia). I'm still looking for good rhubarb recipes if you have some. I try to limit sugar (although I wasn't too good at that today) but it is hard to find good ways to use rhubarb without sugar. Of course, we will make rhubarb wine one of these days! We have bought rhubarb wine before but didn't like it much. We will probably try to make it with strawberries or raspberries.

Lupine & Columbine

We have had such beautiful weather the last few days that it is much more tempting to head to the garden after work than to the computer. However, I have been wanting to post a few photos. We don't grow many flowers because we concentrate on edible landscaping but we do have a few things planted for the hummingbirds and butterflies. We haven't seen any butterflies around the lupine but the hummingbirds have taken to the columbine. Now I'm headed back out to the garden to work in the last bit of daylight. Hope all is growing well wherever you are!

Spring report

Today marked my official end of grad school for now and the beginning of gardening season. The yellow rose was part of the graduation ceremony and seemed just ready for a photo.

It will be nice to have some time to get out into the garden. However, the lows here may be close to freezing tonight so I'm not going to put tomatoes, peppers, melons and squash out yet. I hope things will warm up next week. The front yard has the scent of lilacs while the fragrance of clove currants is wonderful in the back yard. The alpine strawberry plants you see in the picture are doing well. They are a bit tedious to pick but are a wonderful treat. Even though it is still early in the season, we have been able to harvest lovage, baby greens, asparagus and rhubarb. We are even thinking of "harvesting" the lilacs after having seeing a recipe for lilac wine. Sounds good or too weird to try?

Perfect

We spent the afternoon transplanting herbs and flowers

Our meal was asparagus straight from the garden

The lilacs will be in full bloom in a few days

Sunny day with wisps of clouds in blue skys

Temps in the mid 70's

Perfect

Just waiting...

I love growing herbs. They are an easy way to add a lot of flavor to a dish in no time. I always include room for thyme, dill, rosemary, chives and lovage in the garden. However, basil is one of my favorites. This year, I started bush basil plants from Pinetree Garden Seeds for my garden and to give away. The plants will be lovely, delicious and just waiting to be picked as they sit in a pot by the front door of our house. I can wait to toss basil, rosemary and salt with tomatoes fresh from the garden!

The basil plants pictured here are just waiting for warmer weather before they head outside.