Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Sunday of the Month

We try not to eat a lot of desserts. But there are certain local foods that just need celebration and a Sunday of the Month seems like a good way to celebrate. May brings us the first of the wild greens – lambs quarters, amaranth, and dandelion. But the best May treat is rhubarb, tart and red and full of flavor after a winter of less interesting stored fruits.

In May, I make rhubarb crisp, rhubarb cake, rhubarb chutney, and I freeze rhubarb to use the rest of the year on yogurt. But the absolutely best way to use rhubarb is as a sauce on ice cream. My favorite is vanilla, but I would imagine that rhubarb sauce on strawberry ice cream or on raspberry sherbet would be pretty spectacular too.

Rhubarb Sauce

10 stalks of rhubarb cut into ½” – 1” pieces (about 8 cups)
¼ cup water
Cook in a covered pot on medium for 15 – 20 minutes. (watch out that it doesn’t boil over)
Sweeten to taste with about ¾ cup white sugar.
Serve on ice cream and enjoy!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Tag, you're knit!

Twice a year we invite fiber people to our farm. They bring projects to work on, food to share and sometimes, show and tell. We provide dye pots and dyes, a space to gather, and sometimes, new experiences. We always have sheep to pet and fields and woods to walk. This year we started a weaving on my garden loom with different people adding shots of color. Participants also made felted can cosys (see Patterns on my website for directions), learning the basics of wet felting in the process. Fiber day is a chance to reconnect with old friends, meet new people, and share ideas. Past fiber days have given me new knitting patterns and new directions to take in felting and weaving. The biggest surprise this year was to find my mailbox covered in knitting with a little sign that said “Tag, you’re knit!” I’m keeping the mailbox sweater to use at our next fiber day, but I’m going to knit something to tag someone else and pass on the yarn graffiti.