first harvest of a new season - rhubarb and asparagus

Well, only three tiny stalks of asparagus, but a nice bunch of rhubarb. Three fat stalks. I had lots of strawberries at home so I made a rhubarb strawberry crumble tonight. Yummy! The recipe said "preferably red rhubarb stalks". Well, the green stalked variety proliferates in our community gardens. We all share it. Today I showed a new gardener our help-yourself patch. I think the chartreuse green stalk slices look super with bright red strawberries. They certainly taste great!

rhubarb crisp

I picked a big handful of rhubarb today - first of the season. It made a delicious rhubarb crisp for desert.

(I used this recipe and modified by using 1.5 lbs rhubarb with the full amount of topping in the recipe. I also broiled it on low for 3 minutes after it was finished baking. I didn't hear any complaints....)

solstice celebration at the community garden

HOT, HOT! But a fun get together of gardeners. A dozen of us shared garden dinner dishes under the apple tree in front of our community garden.

The dishes included Catherine's vegetarian casserole of brown rice, broccoli, onion flavored with dill, mint and chives from her garden, a salad of greens from Judy's garden, Ali's couscous croquettes, very fresh snap peas and arugula from Malachy's garden and lots of rhubarb: Christina's rhubarb crisp and my rhubarb pie.

My rhubarb pie recipe is from the Epicurius website: Deep-Dish-Rhubarb-Pie-with-Crumb-Topping
Instead of decorating with pastry leaves, I used cut-outs of the summer sun.

green rhubarb

I will add photos here soon. I had planned to photograph the stalks I brought home, but my mother-in-law loves it so much she ate it all before I got a shot.

I've never seen green rhubarb before and had to look it up. Yes, its "ripe". Its just a green variety. Rhubarb comes in red, green and all shades in between. And color doesn't relate to sweetness.

These green rhubarbs are all over our community garden. They must be the most prolific variety for us. Everyone shares the plants which are very vigorous. Mine are a division from another plot.

I still like the looks of a red rhubarb and will be on the lookout for another plant to add to my garden.