I love that! And I love that when Alida wakes up and sees rhubarb sitting on the counter and exclaims, "the first rhubarb..." and then follows with, "can we make jam?" that I can think about it and respond affirmatively. There is a tad more give in the day when I know that I have two days following to work and play here at home. My hesitation was actually more about what we would use to sweeten rhubarb since we are slowly whittling away at those products. We are out of sugar and molasses and don't plan to restock those. We are out of honey other than a few tablespoons from a little jar gifted to us by friends in thanks for a rooster, though I do plan to restock since the girls are itching to make strawberry jam. So what remains is maple syrup. Seems a little too precious for canning but it worked splendidly!The reason I had picked rhubarb in the first place was to try my idea for a lemon juice substitute. I haven't used them in recipes yet but I have a gallon bag of rhubarb ice cubes in my freezer that I'll admit to being a bit pleased about! I just cooked down the rhubarb, creamed it with my immersion blender, and filled ice cube trays. They popped right out when frozen and seem very promising.
So the girls and I went back out and harvested a bunch more, enough to make a quadruple batch of canned rhubarb jam. It was approved plain, it was approved spread on rice cakes and it was approved as a topping for yogurt. I still think it is funny that rhubarb jam recipes tend to call for lemon juice. In my current way of thinking, it seems a bit redundant. So we omitted that and did about a gallon of cooked down rhubarb to two cups of maple syrup and I could probably even bump that back a bit more.
We enjoyed a breakfast together of sausage (your choice of chicken or groundhog), the current favorite nettle, chives, leek and egg saute, alongside fried polenta. And I am currently making about two gallons of mint tea every other day or so to keep us stocked. There is no end in site to the peppermint, applemint, lemon balm or spearmint we can choose from. Yesterday, I also eyed up the expanding and lush looking oregano patch and decided it was time to get the solar dryer back in regular use. I've dried some alfalfa for tea and now have a quart jar of dried oregano on the shelf - hopefully the first of several as we ran out just a few weeks back.
I think part of what is making my days at home even more enjoyable is how much the girls want to be part of things and how very helpful Kali is as she gets more fully engaged in our homestead. I hung out loads of laundry yesterday but she brought them in for me. She was right there for every step of the rhubarb jam process and rather than just watching, she often would watch me for a moment and then take over. And after dinner last evening we all were outside in the main garden together. Alida was mostly our chatterbox and entertainer, while Jason, Kali and I weeded and did some harvesting. Kali and I picked 8 large bowlfuls of spinach for fresh eating and the freezer and didn't quite make it through half the patch before dark. So that has been bumped to today's list, along with harvesting a bunch of magenta lambsquarter for the freezer (all family members enjoyed it steamed last night for dinner so we'll add that to our collection of frozen items). We need to get on that since the lambsquarter is wanting to overtake our beet patch. It seems that all sorts of edible goodies want prime space in our ever improving garden soil!
In our fruit salad the other evening I put the last container of 2014 strawberries. So other than the little bit of jam left in the last container, we are officially out of strawberry matter from last year. Seems like good timing - just enough time to make us good and eager for the first taste as we watch the green berries grow by the day. Last evening in the garden, I made a comment about how none of them had started blushing yet. That got into a conversation about blushing and being embarrassed and Kali kept Alida busy for awhile suggesting ways she might embarrass the strawberries so that they might ripen more quickly. Alida seemed to be confusing embarrass with scare or startle as she kept running over to the strawberries and saying things like, "boo!"Alida seems to be enjoying that with each passing week she is getting stronger and more able to do things. She is getting a bit more independent, though is still quite the cuddler and has a strong inclination to be close a lot of the day. Last evening as we walked hand in hand (at her request) to the garden, she said, "let's hold hands always." At other times she seems quite fine with me heading outside without her. She was playing with Kali and our friend Cyrus the other day when I went out to harvest some things. When I said I was headed out she said, "Ok, bye..." and then ran towards me and said, "Don't worry, we'll look after everything." How good to know! When she is doing a new task or showing some new skill, she will often say things like, "See, I am able." It's so cute to see her delighting in her own development!
Well, speaking of developing skills, it's about to kick off the Saturday morning fun of rousing sleeping kiddos, brushing frizzly hair and redoing braids, getting some food in bellies and getting ourselves out the door for the morning soccer fun...
But I should not end this blog without one note on the progress in the bathroom. Jason got the mirror installed so with a functioning sink and a mirror above it, he felt it was time for the long awaited beard trim. I think it was cheating just a tad (though I guess he really only noted that he wanted to not trim his beard again until he could do it in the new bathroom, which he did). Alida is sad to not have quite as much to pull on! I am glad it is no longer long enough for Jason to chew on it! So I think we are down to about 4 days left on the bathroom project, which we hope to fit into the cracks in May, between main garden prepping and planting activities. And of course a continuation of the chick hatching season, which has spread over several months and is by far a record year. Jason figured that he will have flocks out at 9 locations other than our own this year, which is exciting! We are enjoying a much greater reliance on broody hens this year and they are doing a great job helping with the hatching and raising of chicks. Plus they are so fun to watch!
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