Iowa On A Plate- Girl Bonding Over Rhubarb

I get super excited in the springtime. Everything is turning green and growing, and around the lake, that means rhubarb! 

In the Midwest it seems like everyone's yard has a nice rhubarb patch. Certainly everyone's grandmother had a nice big spot in the yard and a folder stuffed full of recipes from generations of amazing home bakers. Rhubarb cakes, crisps, cobblers and so much more make up entire sections of church cookbooks. Bake sales surely include a rhubarb coffee cake or two. The first spring strawberries usually partnered up with rhubarb in a juicy delicious pie. So many wonderful food memories include rhubarb!

Rebecca's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

In spite of this rich history, modern palates seem to shy away from this perennial delight. Even though I see rhubarb in many modern recipes such as jams and sauces, many people I talk to "don't like it" and don't want to try the classic recipes. It's time we turn things around, and get this tart and sweet favorite back on the plate, folks. It practically grows itself, is relatively pest-free and is super easy to freeze for use throughout the year. Simply wash the stalks, chop or slice, freeze on a sheet pan until frozen and bag up in freezer bags. You can easily scoop out whatever you need to make something truly delicious, just like Gramma used to make.

Social media has replaced the backyard fence in today's world, and where I might have shared a recipe with a neighbor across the way years ago, these days we meet and get to know other cooks and recipe collectors through our social media networks and online groups. This is exactly how I got to know Rebecca Manship. In the Facebook group Iowa On a Plate she shared a picture of her Old Fashioned Rhubarb Cake and instantly, the connection between two women who love to bake and love rhubarb was made. Her cake looked delicious and so homey and the pile of fresh rhubarb on the table just screamed springtime.

Like so many wonderful cooks, Rebecca learned by watching and helping her mother. She tells me her mother loved cooking and baking, and I'm quite sure had a number of family favorites in her memory. Talking about the different foods we love to make Rebecca shared that she loves baking pies and zucchini breads and many other things- and, like me, she takes pictures of all her goodies as she bakes them! 

Rebecca's Rhubarb Cake

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1 egg
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream 1 1/2 cups sugar and the butter or shortening until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients except the cinnamon and remaining sugar. Spread batter in greased baking pan. Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the batter.

Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until the cake tests done with a toothpick.

This cake is delicious served warm with cream or vanilla ice cream. Rebecca's mom used to make this cake and she thinks the recipe came from her grandmother. I know one thing- as soon as the rhubarb is ready I will be making this cake!

Canning Cookbook- One of many canning experiments

One of the best parts of spring in Iowa is the abundance of fresh rhubarb. Seems like every yard has it. Seems like no one likes it. Except me !! I love it !! I am lucky enough to have lots of friends who don't pick theirs, so they let me. 

I have loads of rhubarb recipes (hope YOU like it too !!) but one of my very favorites is one of my older recipes that I've been making for a long long time and combines two of my favorite fruits- rhubarb, of course, and blueberries. Sooooo love blueberries. I wish I could grow them, but I would need a forest of blueberry bushes to keep me happy.

Canning your own food used to be a "lost food art". No one did it anymore except people who were stockpiling for the end of civilization. Oh sure, a lot of people remembered their grandmother or mother canning, but not a lot of modern women were still doing it. Maybe because so many of us worked full time jobs, or were busy hauling kids around to various activities. Having a deeply rooted interest in food and cooking got me interested in canning. Today canning is making a huge comeback- spurred on by people being more aware of what's IN your food, GMOs, how things are processed, factory cleanliness, protecting our heirloom plants. But for me, it was a step back in time, and away from the modern world of processed foods, convenience eating and rush rush rush.

When I was first learning about canning, I started with tomatoes. Everyone should start with tomatoes, I think, and once you are comfortable with tomatoes, jams are a great next step, with some of the easiest recipes, with very little failure. There isn't much complicated about making a really good jam, especially if you use pectin. If you can read directions, you got this! 

Over the course of a season and many batches of jam later, I will most certainly end up with leftover bits of this and that. A cup of cherries, a freezer bag full of peaches. Something I used in a recipe and just had too much of. I love making combinations with these odds and ends, and some of my best jams have come from a few bags of scraps and leftovers, like this one- when blueberries go on sale I go all out. I buy LOADS. They are easy to wash, spread out on a sheet pan and freeze, then bag up. Throw a handful in pancake batter, cake mix- whatever you want. So when I had a little bit of rhubarb, and a little bag of blueberries....... the brain got going........

Blueberry Rhubarb Jam

3 1/2 cups rhubarb, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup water

2 1/4 cups blueberries, coarsely chopped

1 TB lemon juice

1 box powdered pectin

5 1/2 cups sugar

Prepare jars for canning.

In a large stockpot combine rhubarb and water, bring to boil. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Add blueberries, lemon juice and pectin, stir to mix well. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat while stirring constantly. Add sugar all at once, return to boil stirring constantly. Boil hard for exactly one minute. Remove from heat.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, fix lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for 5 minutes (start time after water returns to full boil). Remove from water, and allow to cool away from drafts and enjoy the ping ping ping.

Wasn't that EASY ?? Let me just say before you go rushing off coming up with combinations- there is a SCIENCE to canning, and the matter of safety. In general, when you're making a 50/50 combo like this one, the best way to ensure a good and safe product is to consult the instructions that come with the pectin. Find both fruits, halve the ingredients and use those measurements. Yes, it can be a little fussy but you want a jam that gels well and the pH isn't all wacky (pretty rare but it can happen). Once you are more familiar with canning, or if you're already at the top of your game- THEN experiment, and most importantly- HAVE FUN!