Visitors and Rhubarb

This past week a gardening club, led by Mary Christianson, came to visit me, to view my yard and garden. They, like me, love to see what others have done to beautify their outdoor space. We're always looking for new ideas and to possibly find new plants to add to our own collections. I don't think we ever get too old to learn. Now, incorporating those new ideas and doing the actual work to implement them is a different proposition.

While they were here, I learned that I had been misidentifying a couple of flowering plants in my collection. The "tall daisy" I was sold by a local greenhouse is actually an aster. The shade-loving, purple-flowering perennial on the north side of my house is not a plumeria, but a lamium. Specifically, it's a Purple Dragon Lamium. I had to look it up. To quote Shakespeare, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." I still love those plants.

I did put in two new lungworts this spring. Those are also called pulmonariums. I'd misidentified my lamium as a raspberry splash pulmonarium years ago. My brain had scrambled pulmonarium with plumeria. Years of calling it by the wrong name cemented that wrong info in there. Both lungworts and lamium love the shade. They both have mottled, or spotted, foliage which seems to 'pop' in the shade. So now I really do have the raspberry splash, as well as one called pretty in pink.

The club was here just in time to see the Shasta daisies in their full glory. Now they're starting to fade, making seeds, and getting shaggy looking. I really need to get out there and deadhead them. They go to seed quickly, and the wind scatters that seed willy-nilly. Daisies pop up everywhere up here. I have a field full of them. I do prefer them to weeds in that field.

All the columbines also need deadheading. Those were already at the shaggy stage when my visitors were here. I had snapped the seed-forming heads off some of them, but have now promised to save the seed from one particular kind for the visitors. Some years ago, when it was a new variety, I'd purchased three black double-flowering columbines from one of the catalogs I get. They're really a deep, dark purple, but called black. I haven't always deadheaded in time, and can't even begin to count how many I have now.

Several people have told me they've used the rhubarb recipes I shared recently. One even told me that her husband, who doesn't like rhubarb, enjoyed the one she made. I believe it was the scones. I've agreed with those who said that recipe would benefit from a light powdered sugar icing drizzled over them. Since the rhubarb is still producing nicely, here are a couple new recipes I've recently made. These recipes are going into my file and will be used again and again.

Lemon & Rhubarb Cookies

12 Tbl butter (1 1/2 sticks)

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 sugar

1 egg

2 C flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1 C rhubarb

Zest of 1 lemon

2 Tbl lemon juice

1 Tbl sugar

Heat oven to 350°. Add the zest, lemon juice, and 1 Tbl sugar to the rhubarb. Mix well and let sit.

Cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, mixing well. Fold in the flour and cornstarch. Add the rhubarb and mix in. Place by tablespoonsful on well-greased sheets. Bake 10-15 minutes, until set. These will not brown, so don't overbake. Cool on rack.

I had to convert the grams of butter into a measurement we use, as well as the oven temp from Celsius to Fahrenheit. It only made 36 cookies, so I've noted to myself to double it next time. I used silicone liners on my cookie sheets instead of greasing. I think parchment paper would work also. I baked mine for 11-12 minutes, and they have stayed soft. I do love both lemon and rhubarb.

The club members had talked about making rhubarb slushies, so I went searching for rhubarb drink recipes. You can make them with or without alcohol. I took mine to go with the cookies after church, so just used ginger ale in this first one. The pulp is mighty tasty, too. I'd grated a chunk of ginger a while back, freezing it in teaspoonsful on trays. All those teaspoonsful are separate in containers in the freezer, ready for use. I used one in place of each 1" knob called for, then doubled the recipe. After chilling and before serving, I added 6 cans of ginger ale. (If you don't double the recipe, only use 3 cans.) The second one I served over ice, as it says.

Rhubarb/Ginger Simple Syrup

1 C sugar

2 C chopped rhubarb

1" knob ginger, sliced

2 C water

Bring to a low boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat, let steep 10 minutes. Strain. Let drain naturally, without pressing the pulp, to prevent clouding the liquid. Cool to room temp. Seal in glass jar and refrigerate.

You can mix with 1/2 C lemon juice, 1 C sparkling water, and 1/2 sliced strawberries for lemonade, or use in cocktails, or just add the ginger ale, as I did.

Polish Rhubarb Honey Drink

4 C water

1/2 C honey

1# rhubarb, chopped

3 C hot water

Ice

Orange slices, optional

Sprigs of mint, optional

Boil the 4C water. Remove from heat, stir in the honey, and set aside to cool. Put rhubarb in processor, blend to pulp. Put in medium-sized bowl and pour the 3C hot water over. Cover and let cool. When cool enough to handle, place in fridge two hours, until cold. Strain rhubarb through a sieve into the honey water. Stir to combine. Pour into a pitcher. Fill four tall glasses with ice and pour drink over. Garnish with orange slices or mint sprigs.