Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Rhubarb, rhubarb everywhere!

I set aside this morning to harvest the rhubarb, make sauce, and pop it into the freezer . . . no sweat.
Things did not go as planned. It took me all day to put up the 50+ pounds of rhubarb I picked. At any rate, when I was lugging the white bag with 2/3 of the stalks, it felt like a big bag of chicken feed (the 40# size). Follow the photo journey of a rhubarb day, and may there not be another one like it anytime soon!

This is a LOT of rhubarb stalks! The plants grew like crazy while we were gone. Red, tender, and long, it was an overgrown rhubarb jungle. And honestly . . . it doesn't look like I even touched it! 


I lugged the 50+ pounds of water-rich, tender rhubarb stalks into the kitchen and set to putting it all in an assembly line:
1) whack off root part into bucket. 
2) toss into sink. 
3) hold stalk in the air by left hand, hold knife in right hand, and start whacking each stalk into smaller pieces. 
4) load into quart measuring cup in preparation for . . . (see next picture)
 

5) Cooking. Load pans on stove, add sugar and just a teensy amount of water, and let it cook. (Note: the previous picture and this picture were taken at the same time. Did I mention there was LOTS?
6) Cook for a LONG time.


7) Dump hot sauce into large bowls to cool (which took a long time too!)

 Final count: 15 quarts to put into the freezer, with 2 quarts in the refrigerator for fresh eating.

 And that was my entire day. *whoosh*


3 comments:

Bethany R. said...

Wow! Looks crazy! I love rhubarb but it stopped growing here...sadly. :-( What is your favorite recipe with rhubarb?

Andi Carter said...

My favorite recipe for rhubarb is rhubarb sauce. Kind of like applesauce.

Unknown said...

Missie will be sooo jealous when I show her this. She LOVES rhubarb. I don't know why we haven't harvested ours yet. I think we've been a bit busy lately... I remember when I first encountered rhubarb and ate the leaves. A lot of leaves. ;) Miraculously I did not get sick. What a wonderful bunch of rhubarb you've got there! Mmm, mmm! Do you make rhubarb pies, by chance? :D
Enjoy your posts so much!