Those aren’t rhubarb pies. They’re rhubarb empanadas.

I LOVE Rhubarb! Those look incredible. I’d love the recipe. I just made fresh Blueberry Frozen Yoghurt. I get so excited when the fresh fruit starts to come in. I have a big bowl of South Carolina peaches that I’ll probably make into cobbler later today.

Happy Saturday Phoenix Woman! Happy Springtime Firepups!

Ha, I second what Ella said. Whatever you want to call ‘em, they look delicious. Can’t wait to see a pic of the big rhubarb pie when you make it.

Rhubarb pie, rhubarb cobbler, rhubarb sauce on vanilla ice cream, the Persian rhubarb sauce over rice (it’s a main dish: ingredients mostly meat, rhubarb, and parsley).

I have some growing in large (20-inch) pots. As long as I keep it watered and fertilized, it seems to be happy. I also have several pounds, sliced, in the freezer.

(My father ate it raw, but he also like some kinds of lemons as snacks.)

Oh yeah: the Rhubarb Compendium: http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/

OK, OK…how about ‘out of the hand rhubarb pies’?

Anyone want to come up to Chez Siberia and share some lettuce? Sheesh – I’ve got six different kinds of lettuce, all basically ready to pick, and some very threatening slugs out there. We also have, in various states of growth: kohlrabi, broccoli, chinese cabbages, red and green cabbages (yes, we DO like cabbage at Chez Siberia..why do you ask?), potatoes, peppers, basil(but I’m going to put in more), spinach, chard, onions, tomatoes, green beans, winter and summer squashes, and carrots. I’ve been harvesting and freezing rhubarb for about a month now – but now that strawberries are in locally, I can make a nice strawberry and rhubarb crisp..mmmmmmm.

One of the great things in the whole world is strawberry/rhubarb pie. But I will accept those beautiful
smaller ones, thanks. I have my plate out. :)

Mornin’ Phoenix Woman and Firedogs,

don’t have a garden again this year – but a lovely farmers market just down the road – and prices are falling as the season progresses – yeay!

rhubarb – last year our little cafe was favorbably reviewed by Austin Statesman guy – our rhubarb pie was featured prominently (rare in TX, we can’t grow it) and y’all should have seen the busloads of homesick mid westerner’s and north easterners beating a path to our little place

rhubarb pate – really, who knew ?

Sun and heat in Seattle for more than two weeks! Anyone know why slugs and other critters like newly sprouted lima beans but leave other kinds of beans untouched?? Otherwise, lettuce, leeks, walla walla onions, beets and potatoes flourishing. Two blossoms on the tomato plant. Oregano, thytme, lavender and bay tree are thriving.

Favorite rhubarb dessert: peel and slide raw rhubarb, place in saucepan without water, sweat the rhubarb, add sugar galore, several slices of lemon and a clove or two. Good hot or cold.

Hey Fire Pups: I realize this is O/T, but it bears a few minutes of your time. And hey Barack (and/or any cronies who have the president’s ear and who are paying attention): Learn it. Know it. Live it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URCNk4K9tNk

Waves of jealousy here! Our lettuces bolted last week, so we’re back to buying it. I can’t wait until the fall when it gets cool enough to plant again.

The tomatoes are coming along (Sweet 100s, which we love), and the bell peppers are covered with blossoms and one growing pepper, just saw the first buds on the eggplant, and the beans are sort of limping along. It’s the first time I’ve tried them, so maybe it’s back to the drawing board with them. The herbs are all going great guns, but I’m adding more parsley and dill for when the black swallowtail caterpillars start munching.

I thought okra loved the heat, but mine’s not doing so well. Maybe not enough sun?

Basil is going gang-busters, now on my second generation of saving seed. Will be making pesto again this weekend.

Actually have some tomatoes this year, or will have once they ripen. It’s too hot for any more fruits to set, so I’ll pull them up later and go for a short-season variety this fall.

There’s a few bell peppers out front that over-wintered from last year, supposed to be purple but they’re so dark, they look black to me.

Just have plants growing right now. It has been a cool spring so far. Did get asparegus earlier this spring, first year of production. But have 3 types of tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, bulb onion, green onion, cantalopes, watermelon, pumpkin, zuchs, sugar snap peas cucmber and 3 types of chiles.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Pheonix Woman and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Back from the wilderness of the Lake of the Woods Northwest Angle, the 8th wonder of the world where the men are men, the women are better’n that and the Walleyes are jumpin’ in the boat,over the boat, under the boat and into the trees…there IS life after politics!

Treked up through the woods to an old firetower, climbed past a Cormorant nest and zoned out watchin God fromm the highest point on the lake so Rhubarb recipes (even with strawberries and cream cheese) don’t stir much in the blood stream – if ya catch my drift!

Then got back in the boat, hauled-ass back to the point and helped my son put a 44 inch Muskie in the boat after he broke the Walleye net and my son had ta lassoo ‘im and I hadda grab the damned thing and toss ‘im in the boat with my bare hands…so Rhubard recipes don’t stir any movement in my cosmos this mornin’ but have a nice day anyway folks…good to be home.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THESE ARE OUR WARS AND WE GOTTA END ‘EM!!

Missed you. And how did the Walleye taste? “g”

Ice cold rhubarb juice, a little sweetener (sugar/honey) and vodka. Bloody Betties and buckwheat pancakes!

Vodka & Pancakes? Now that’s what I call progressive!

My tomatoes are coming along, but my chinese eggplant and bell peppers (and serrano) are doing nothin. Groundhog is eating the tomatillos. Any sure way to get rid of groundhogs? I mean – deter. I tried to kill the thing once trapped in the hava-heart, but didn’t have the heart to do it.
I put down cocoa shell mulch and it got rather moldy during the last rain. Doesn’t seem to affect the plants yet…

PS, thanks for rhubarb link – i just got out the canning jars and sat down to look up recipes!

Mornin’/afternoon, gang -

Word of caution: don’t bother trying to grow squash/zucchini in pots……work, it doesn’t. :-((

Much as I love growing stuff, given the cost of soil/admendments/fertilizer/seeds vs. the quantity of veggies I’m not gettting, have decided next year to stick to things like lettuce and spinach plus the herbs and flowers. Will try potatoes again, tho’. The few that I put in two “potato bags” and wooden veggies crates *appear* to be doing well. That’s after fighting the slugs and then having the deer find them (not to mention assorted other pests)….it’s worth if the plants actually produce *real* new potatoes as opposed to the ones so labeled in the stores.

Well, if it’s any consolation Waccamaw, I’m sure someone somewhere will have an extra ‘kini or two ;)

Hi, Ell -

Not anyone I know at this point in time but when they start coming in good, I could probably buy a ton for the amount of money I put into trying to produce a few this year. *g*

And for all you rhubarbians, Toby’s got the complement post up on Strawberries

Not exactly a gardening question but has anyone bought onions this year labeled as “Vidalias” that turned out to be stronger than a horse’s kick? Have bought from at least three different retailers and not a single one of them has been sweet. Put in a call to the V. growers association in GA on Friday to ask what was going on but the person I needed to talk to wasn’t there. Definitely plan to call back b/c I’m wondering if the labeling is being exploited somewhere along the line….those farmers have to have put a wad of money into brand advertising and they need to know something ain’t workin’ like it should.

Waccamaw, my understanding is that the sweetness of Vidalias like Walla Walla and Maui is in the soil content. You can only sell onions as vidalia if they were grown in that region with its particular soil and conditions.

They’ve become so popular that they sell the plants that DO come from there but they will develop flavor as they grow becoming in our case Weaverville onions which are decidedly not sweet.

Morning, PW. I’ve been a rhubarbarian most of my life, but it turns out they are on my “avoid” list (Eat Right for Your (Blood) Type). Apricot rhubarb pie is a special treat now. At least apricots are on the “highly beneficial” list. I’m gonna miss my meat though, snif.

I’m battling snails this year. I go out at night and pick them off the tomatoes, the pineapple sage, the basil, and yet – I have no tomatoes left, no basil, but at least the sage is holding its own.

There’s a new produce exchange just opened in Monrovia. Once a month, bring what you have, take what you need. We expected a handful of folks the first Saturday, got a bushel full instead, and still everyone brought more than they took home. The Unity Center will get the rest for their food bank.

We are planting an apricot, a Meyer lemon, a regular lemon and a lime tree sometime next week. We were planning on planting today, have the holes dug and all, but our neighbor’s sprinkler blew a head and threw a 30 ft plume of water over the fence into our yard for 15 minutes, filling all the holes. IF it’s not one thing, it’s your mother…

The Pennsylvania Dutch (my wonderful, if extraordinarily thrifty ancestors) had an alternate name for rhubarb: Pie plant. Pretty much says it all, economically, and to the point I’ve always thought.

The problem is finding good rhubarb pie on the road. Most commercial pie makers insist on mixing strawberries with rhubarb, which I’ve always felt is, well, an abomination, not to put it too strongly. Give me straight rhubarb, either custard (my grandmother’s favorite kind) or straight (my mother’s favorite) every time.

Yeah, I always understood it was the soil, too. Which still doesn’t mean that that somewhere along the supplier chain, there ain’t a little hanky panky going on b/c of the popularity of the product.

That isn’t by some huge coinkidink [sic] Weaverville, NC, is it?

Hanky Panky indeed. They shouldn’t be able to see them with that name and at a premium price when they know that what comes up won’t be what you thought you were buying… and it would indeed be Weaverville, NC.

see them = sell them

Mommybrain — Go ahead and eat your rhubarb and meat and whatnot; D’Adamo’s theory has been shown to be balderdash.

Yupper. But most people where I live give you a blank look when you talk about empanadas, so I just call them pies. :-)

Recipe for 1 dozen empanadas (or 1 large pie) goes like this:

Crust –

1 cup flour
1/3 cup hot milk
2 oz. butter/oleo/shortening (1/2 stick)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Dash of salt (optional)
One egg (for later)

Measure out flour in medium-sized bowl, then stir in baking powder and salt. Heat milk in microwave, then slice butter into small bits and add to hot milk, stirring until melted. Slowly pour milk mixture into flour mixture, stirring as you go. When all is mixed and there are no dry spots, poke at it with your spatula for a bit, then wrap up in wax paper and put in the fridge for two hours.

Filling:

– Rhubarb (six to ten stalks)
– Sugar or Splenda (varying amounts)
– Orange or lemon juice
– Dash of vanilla (optional)

While that’s in the fridge, take six to ten rhubarb stalks (depending on size), wash well, chop off the roots and any leafy parts (the leaves are toxic!), and then chop into one-inch segments. Put into saucepan with 1/8 cup confectioners’ sugar and 1/8 cup Splenda/Sugar mix (or 1/4 cup sugar and two tablespoons cornstarch), add a splash of orange or lemon juice, and vanilla (especially if you use Splenda) and put on low heat, covered, for about fifteen minutes, stirring once every five minutes, until the rhubarb is broken down and its liquids are released. Set aside. Go crack that egg and beat it up, with about a teaspoon of water.

When crust is ready, form into twelve one-inch chunks and roll out with rolling pin (or use pasta machine), liberally flouring as you go, until you have twelve five-inch discs. Spoon about a heaping tablespoon’s worth of rhubarb filling in the middle of each disc, then brush halfway along the inner edge with egg wash and seal. Use fork to crimp on the outside. When discs have all been filled and sealed, wash with rest of egg so crust browns nicely, put in a 450F oven for ten to fifteen minutes, and enjoy.

Well, too unfreakin’ believable! Jackson Country (for assorted parts of the year since retirement) and full-time since 1970.

Wanna plan on a meet-up one of these days?

edit – if I had anything approximating a memory left, I’d know somewhere along the line, we discussed that proximity b/c you’re on my list of NC pups. I remember memory…..it was a lovely thing to have. *sniff*

Phoenix Woman sez sumpin’ like… Recipe for 1 dozen empanadas

Thank you!!!

and then Waccamaw is all like…I remember memory…..it was a lovely thing to have. *sniff*

I know all too well. I think we met here many moons ago. Let’s get together some time and compare notes. g’nite

Let’s get together some time and compare notes. g’nite

Fer sur!. I’ve got an addy you must have provided lo those many moons that I’ll give a test drive soon.

PW, I suspected as much, but it has gotten me into a much better pattern, so I will happily continue without the bamboozle.