Ugly Pie. 6.24.22

 I still had some cherry pie filling in the freezer, so made a pie.  The crust was very difficult to work with, brittle and kept falling apart. My guess is the flour, which was the last of a big bag of institutional bleached white  flour bought by internet during the early part of the pandemic.  The crust was too brittle to top the pie so I tried a lattice topping but that fell apart too.

Still, the flavor was good.  Even the crust was good, despite the difficulty in working with it.  

I think there is some rhubarb on the plant, calling my name now.  Maybe that's next.

First Rhubarb Harvest. 5.15.2020

Today I harvested some rhubarb.  I was going to make a pie, but it was kind of a "COVID-19" and too much other bad news day, so I didn't.  Tomorrow.

I don't know the variety.  It was here when we bought the place, 8 years ago.  I'd like to divide it and plant in a nicer spot.  The stems are juicy and pink inside, an it makes a nice pink rhubarb pie.

Might make a good freezer jam, too.

Rhubarb Crumble. 5.4.14

Rhubarb Harvest for Crumble.  5.4.14

 I kept saying I was going to make either a rhubarb pie or rhubarb crumble.  Sunday I did.  Came out very good.  Easy, I don't know why I couldn't get myself to make it.

The rhubarb mix:

8 cups 1/2 inch slices of fresh rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

The topping:
1 cup flour
1 up brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats.
1/2 cup soft butter.

Preheat over to 375.
Spray 13 x 8 casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Combine rhubarb mix and spread into casserole dish.

Combine topping mix and sprinkle clumps over the rhubarb.

Bake 35 minutes until bubbling and hot in the center.

That's all.  Easy.

Rhubarb crumble.  5.4.14

Front Yard

Rhubarb not quite ready for pie. Maybe 2 weeks. The pink tree is "Hollywood Plum". There may yet be some frosts / freezes, in which case maybe no plums. I always think about that, this time of year. Side/Front yard. Spring is here.   I'm impressed with the amount of diversity in this small space.

Here is the rest of the Apple Pie

I've been informed that I did not publish the rest of the apple pie, as I said I would 2 weeks ago:-) here it is.


Crust recipe here.

This was a 9 inch apple pie.

I used 4 large Braeburn apples. I sliced 5, but that was too much, so I ate the 5th.

Filling is:
3/4 cup sugar (I used 2/3 cup, not as sweet)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
6 cups thinly sliced baking apples (Braeburn is good, or Jonathan, or MacIntosh.
2 tbsp olive oil (Recipe calls for butter. I don't miss it, olive oil is healthier).
1 tsp vanilla.

I added the vanilla to the sugar, mixed them together, then ran the mixture through a sieve to make it granular again. I like having vanilla in the apple pie.

I layered the apples into the crust, a layer of apples, then a layer of flour mix, then a layer of apples, then a layer of flour mix, then one more layer. Then dribble the olive oil on top of the mix. Some bakers mix the apples and flour mix, then pour it into the crust. I think either is OK.

Covered with top crust, a few holes punched with a fork. My mother had a special "pie ventilator" device that cut little designs into the top. I've never been able to find one. Even though a fork does the job just fine, using the device would be more nostalgic. I guess I'll have to settle for using her maple rolling pin.

Foil to keep the edges from burning. I find this works better than the aluminum guard that I bought. The foil gives better coverage. It can be reused multiple times, and I do.

I bake 425 X 15 min then turn the oven down to 375 for 40 minutes. The recipe calls for 425 the entire time, but in my oven that's too much.

The recipe came from my mother's cousin, Pearl's Betty Crocker cookbook, 1969, but I made enough changes that maybe it's my own. I decreased the sugar as noted, added the Vanilla, and decreased the nutmeg because the higher amount in the original recipe gave me heartburn. I might eliminate it altogether. I also changed the butter to olive oil, as noted, and used the olive oil crust.

Today I actually made a rhubarb pie - no photos today, but photos and recipe are here (page down, also not in correct order) except that I used the olive oil crust and forgot the oil (butter). We'll see if that makes a difference. With oil in the crust, it may not. I also left out the lemon juice - forgot to buy some. I also found an error in the recipe - didn't say how much rhubarb - so I corrected it. Wow! Home grown Rhubarb pie and it's not even March yet! It was redder than last time, probably due to the young stems.

Looking at the older photos, the sauce in the pie looks watery. That's because it was sliced when hot. It gels when cool. We like eating ours cool anyway, the flavors seem to blend together better.

Some bakers use tapioca starch in pies. I keep forgetting to buy some. Tapioca starch apparently makes a better gel in the pie filling.

Spring Kitchen Garden Log: Starting a new season

Lots of activity this week and weekend. Yesterday temp in the 60s, today in the 70s. I spent most of the day cleaning up the main tomato patch, pulling weeds, turning soil, reining in renegade strawberries, replanted a few Chinese chives.

Rhubarb, ready for a pie if I get the ambition.

Here's the end result of the tomato patch work. Afterwards, I was too tired and sore to move. It felt very good. The best of puttering meditation.

Cherries almost ready to bloom

Very impressed this year, with this peach tree. I don't know if it will bear, but this is the most that it's bloomed. Covering with plastic for the winter, to prevent leaf curl, doesn't appear to have hurt anything. It will be a few weeks before we see if leaf curl sets in anyway.

Ready for the first batch of dumplings. Yum. This is backyard. The front yard, which is on the north side of the house, has a chive barrel that is barely getting started. Makes for a longer season. The in-ground chives are a mess - bermuda grass grew into the chives, and it's difficult to separate. I had to dig them up and pull out each grass section by hand. The barrels have a big advantage in keeping out most weeds, especially grasses.

Planted tomato seeds. This is about 2 weeks later than I planted in the past. I suspect that the ground temperature is more important than the 2 weeks wait to start seeds, so I don't anticipate any problem from the wait. I usually start too early. No time to buy new seeds, so most are from last year. Varieties: Old seeds, Supersweet100, Lemon Boy, Black from Tula, Better Boy. New seeds from the grocery store: Cherokee Purple, Gold Nugget. At least it's not like we came here in a covered wagon and if they don't grow, I don't get any. If they don't grow, I'll settle for buying some plants.


One of the apple grafts from my Dad's tree, probably red delicious. Too early to know if it 'took', but at least it hasn't dried out and turned black.

Some breba embryos on Lattarula. Keeping my fingers crossed that at last, this year, I'll get to taste some. last year I may have pruned too much, and only late crop developed; with the late Spring, I didn't get much of that. This year. I barely pruned, hoping for early (breba) crop.

First Rhubarb Pie of the Season

Victoria Rhubarb

Canola based crust, organically grown rhubarb. I only used 1 cup of sugar, so it's slightly on the sour side but that's how I like it.


This is "Glaskin's Perpetual". It was started from seeds 3 years ago. This is much slower growing than Victoria. True, the stalks are deeper red, but if it doesnt make majoer stides this year, it'll soon be "Glaskin's compost".

What's Growing March 15 2008

VIctoria Rhubarb. This has been fertilized with generous helping of Chicken Compost, after earlier servings of Starbucks Coffee Grounds. The mulch is chopped yard waste, mostly trimmings from lavendar and grasses. Can rhubarb pie be far behind?

Chinese chives. Similar supplements as the rhubarb, but the mulch is bark mulch. This is more weed prone than the rhubarb, so I wanted something less likely to allow seeds to sprout. Chive dumplings ahead, in about one month....

Success at last! At least, in so far as getting purchased asparagus starts to sprout. So far 7 of the 10 planted have come up. On from of the asparagus, potato onions, about 5th generation of saving starts. This time I want to settle on this one heirloom variety only.

Chinese Chives and Rhubarb

So far we've had one batch od dumplings from the chinese chives. Ning has been asked (by me) to make another batch tomorrow. Takes about a pound, and there are plenty. The rhubarb supplied enough to freeze 1 pound for a future pie, and a pie today as well.

Rhubarb pie: the proof is in the pie!

rhubarb pie: putting it together

Step 7. This is a variation of an old Betty Crocker recipe, from Pearl Elliots old cookbook. I used 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/3 cup flour, a squeeze of lemon juice. I didnt have any butter, so I used 2 tbsp of canola oil and added a squirt of butter flavoring, which might not be needed but it was in the cabinet.

Step 8. Chopped rhubarb goes into the pie crust. Then some mixed sugar and flour as outinled above. Then some more rhubarb, then some sugar/flour mix. Pour the canola over the top.



Step 9. Seal with the top crust, cover the edge with foil (or, for a true pie fanatic, there will be a reusable crust protector in the cabinet).

Step 10. Into the preheated, 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, then temperature is reduced to 325. It took 50 minutes until the crust was brown and juices bubbled up through the fork slits in the top.

steps to rhubarb pie: canola crust

Step 4. This is Lawrence's canola crust (my Dad). No trans fatty acids, no saturated fats. FOr true 'slow food', you have to make your own crust. Also, it's better and better for you.

It's made from:
3 1/4 cups sifted flour (410 grams of flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I use 'lo salt')
3/4 cup canola oil (for savory pie such as a vegetable pie, I use olive oil)
3/8 cup skim milk.

Step 5. I like to use chopsticks to mix it up. Today the consistency was perfect.

Step 6. Roll it out between 2 sheets of wax paper. This is best done using a very old rolling pin (no new stuff here), such as Iva May Alcorn's birds-eye maple rolling pin here. It's also best to use an estate sale pie pan, not the disposable aluminum type.

Steps to a rhubarb pie

Step 1. Find a nice big rhubarb plant. Oh - here's one. Victoria, a mostly green variety, so the pie will be green too, like a 'grasshopper pie'. Green, the color of Spring! (I'm protesting attempts to make it red by adding red fruits like strawberries, although there might be a strawberry-rhubarb pie in June).

Step 2. Pull off a bunch of leaves with stems. Cut off the leaf part, just leaving the celery-like stalks. The leaves go to the compost bin.

Step 3. Chop up the rhubarb stems, about 1/2 to 1 inch cubes. One big stalk gives about 1 cup, a smaller stalk about 1/2 cup. This pie requires 4 cups. I froze the other 4 cups for some future treat.

Rhubarb Dreams

Since the rhubarb is starting to sprout, I started thinking about this plant. This photo is from August 2006.

I've grown it for 4 years, starting it from an "orphan" root that I bought at Fred Meyer's 'reject' stand. It was dried out and dead looking. Even so, it grew rapidly. Due to the fast growth and large size of the plant, it was relocated to a larger spot after one year.

The variety is Victoria. This is an heirloom variety, sometimes raised from seed. I previously raised glaskins perpetual from seed, but didn't have room for two rhubarbs plants so it had to go (the choice had more to do with the location than the plant). Sometimes the stalks are red, but mostly they are green Even on this one plant, there is color variability. In the early Spring, they are redder, but in the summer, they are green. It has a strange, majestic flower stalk, similar to that of yucca, but more fluffy.

Despite the best of intentions, I've harvested only a few batches of stalks, for rhubarb pie or crumble, and one time attempted a rhubarb jam (this was very solid & even though I liked the taste, the texture was too firm). Of course, I didn’t have much idea of what I was doing. The main thing that gets into my way is not that I don't like it (I love rhubarb) but that I am not much of a cook.

Since I'm partial to trivia about a plant's history, here are some interesting factoids and links:

The history of horticultural and medicinal use of rhubarb goes back 4,700 years.

The amazing history of rhubarb - more than any one person could know about rhubarb.

Of course, Wikipedia also has a wealth of information about rhubarb.

Some strange things about this vegetable:

- While tomatoes, which are a fruit, are commonly considered a vegetable, rhubarb, which is a vegetable, is classified as a fruit.
- There is a region in England known as "the rhubarb triangle" where rhubarb is grown.
- Rhubarb rhaponticum, which is a true rhubarb, is known as "false rhubarb."
-The name comes from the latin "rha barbarian", for the barbarian plant from the river Rha, which is the old name for the river Volga (I don't know if I really believe this).

NPR has some alternative uses for rhubarb, such as in chutneys. I really will make better use of this plant this year. Others mention rhubarb breads, rhubarb cake, rhubarb sauces.