Swiss Chard

This is my first season growing Swiss Chard.  So far the bugs have liked it, ALOT.  I included a young, uneaten bunch in my CSA basket this week.  Since I'm new to it, too, I figured I should give my families a couple recipe ideas.  I have not tested these recipes, merely selected to share them because I would like to! 

Simply Recipes - Swiss Chard Recipe
Earth Eats - Swiss Chard with Toasted Cashews

What's in Your Basket

This week's basket includes the following:


Salad Greens - Bibb lettuce (darker green), Ruby lettuce (Red) and Summer Crisp lettuce (light green).

Rhubarb

Green Onions

Squash - The first of the season!

Radishes - To prepare radishes, wipe clean and trim off the stem end and tip. The peppery flavor is most concentrated in the skin and so this can be peeled or cut off if the radishes are too pungent. For added crispness soak in iced water for an hour before use.

Swiss Chard - The first of the season!

Everything in the basket has been rinsed once. It should all be washed again before eating. Please rinse the plastic bags and containers and return them with the basket at your next delivery.

This produce week's basket includes the following:

Salad Greens - Spinach, Bibb lettuce (darker green), Ruby lettuce (Red) and Summer Crisp lettuce (light green).

Rhubarb

Green Onions

Strawberries

Radishes - To prepare radishes, wipe clean and trim off the stem end and tip. The peppery flavor is most concentrated in the skin and so this can be peeled or cut off if the radishes are too pungent. For added crispness soak in iced water for an hour before use.

Everything in the basket has been rinsed once. It should all be washed again before eating. Please rinse the plastic bags and containers and return them with the basket at your next delivery.

Freezing Rhubarb

Select tender stems. Wash and cut into 1-inch pieces. Discard damaged or blemished stems.

Dry Pack: Pack rhubarb into plastic freezer bags or vacuum package. Seal, label, and freeze.

Sugar Pack: Mix 1 part sugar to 4 parts rhubarb. Allow to stand until sugar is dissolved. Pack rhubarb into can-or-freeze jars or plastic freezer boxes. Seal, label, and freeze.

Syrup Pack: Prepare a heavy syrup. Pack rhubarb into can-or-freeze jars or plastic freezer boxes. Ladle syrup over rhubarb, leaving ½- inch headspace. Seal, label, and freeze.

Stewed: Stew or steam rhubarb according to your favorite recipe; sweeten to taste. Cool. Pack same as syrup pack.

Taken from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

Rhubarb Bread

Bread
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups sugar
½ cup applesauce
½ cup oil
4 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup chopped nuts

Topping
4 cups flour
4 tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sift flour, soda and salt together. Add sugar, eggs, oil, applesauce and sour cream. Fold in nuts and rhubarb. Pour into two greased bread pans. Cut sugar and cinnamon into butter into crumbly. Sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350° for 60 minutes. This recipe makes two loaves.

June 13: Garden Update

This weekend brought a lot of rain, a lot of weeds and a lot of garden progress. This coming week will be full of weeding and mulching to cut down on future weeding. I don't think I'll be watering anytime soon.

The potatoes are starting to flower. They need to be weeded and hilled with straw this week. If they aren't hilled the potatoes will form above ground, have a green color from exposure to the sun and be poisonous.

There were some germination issues with the sugar snap peas so they are a bit behind. They are just starting to flower.

The yellow wax beans are on the verge of flowering. The green beans also had to be replanted so they are a couple weeks behind.

The strawberries were plentiful this year and should be done this week. Each year I contemplate tearing them out. They always surprise me and making me change my mind.

Who I am.

A few weeks ago we had a staff development day in our college. As part of the day, we were asked to take a strengths inventory based on the books Strength Finders 2.0 and Strengths Based Leadership and attend a workshop. The idea is to find out what you are good at and develop those strengths rather than working to develop the areas in which you fall short.

My strengths were:

1. Positivity: I generally have a positive outlook on life and look for the best in people.
2. Includer: I enjoy meeting new people and am quick to include them in the groups I am part of.
3. Achiever: I am quick to act, like to feel engaged in my activities, focus on processes and like to accomplish things. I am a list person. I have eleven years worth of notebooks to prove it.
4. Competition: I like to win in situations that are important to me. No surprise here.
5. Futuristic: I am a goal setter and love to talk with visionary people.

I love personality profiles like this. I've done DISC and Myers-Briggs and going through this exercise was just as interesting. How could a quick inventory do such a good job at describing me?

It was even more interesting when a friend described who she was on her blog this week and asked who 'we' were.

Too often I tie my answer to that question to the roles I am playing at the moment. Just look at my blog header. So I am going to use what I learned from Strength Finders and answer her question without thinking about the roles I am currently playing. My roles are not what define me. It's who I am at my core that defines me and those attributes shine through in all of the roles I play.

I:
am happy.
like to try and succeed at new things.
like making people feel more comfortable in any given situation.
am always looking to the future.
like to control what I can.
always try to find the bright spot.
am structured.
am versatile.
am a life-long learner.
am creative.
am emotional.
am a builder.
am a good listener.
am faithful.

The second part of my friend's post described what she wasn't. In concert with Strength Finders, I am not going to focus on what I'm not. That list is way too long and it will make me feel bad about myself and quite overwhelmed. I know I am far from perfect so I'll just try harder to build on what I am.

Garden Progress

It seems like just last week the garden looked like this.

Pretty hairy and pretty scary.  It gave me nightmares.  Then things finally started to come up and I could weed without disturbing ungerminated seeds.

And, now I finally have a clean garden with plants I can row.  I am finally at peace.

Rhubarb Butter Crunch

Church recipe books are one of the best things about living in a rural area. All the country cooks (a.k.a. Church Basement Ladies) submit their best recipes. I received this cookbook from my husband's great aunt as a wedding shower gift.






I discovered one my favorite springtime recipes inside. I've been known to eat the entire baking dish of this delectable dessert. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I do.