Rhubarb Sunday

Hello! MJ here! I couldn’t let GM have all the fun! So here goes…

Spring has finally sprung here in the Netherlands, even if the weather hasn’t gotten the memo. (It is supposed to – finally – get into the 70’s at the end of this week.) There are flowers popping up everywhere, including between the rocks around the fountain in our backyard.

Of course, for me, one of the joys of springtime is thinking of all the canning opportunities. I noticed with glee that the quince bushes we walk past on the way to the bus stop were blooming. Of course the quince won’t be ripe until fall. So what’s a girl to do, you ask? Make rhubarb jam, of course!

The rhubarb and asparagus wake up and stretch their limbs about the same time, and have started turning up in the market. Now, up until this Saturday, I had never even tasted rhubarb, so it was a small leap of faith to buy a giant bunch of it. (The price helped, it was only 80 cents per pound, so my giant bunch cost me less than $4). Saturday afternoon I got the rhubarb prepped and sugared for Sunday’s adventures. Then to reward myself, made a crumble with what was left. GM is always prepared to take on any dessert, but SJ was a little more skeptical. Until she tucked into a small bowl of crumble topped with vanilla ice cream. At which time she said, “Why didn’t you tell me it was this good?!” It is always nice to have an appreciative audience. (It goes without saying that OA wouldn’t get anywhere near it. She kept to her ice cream sandwich routine.) In fact, we liked it so much that we bought a small rhubarb plant (since it was less than 2 euros) when we walked up to the store with our new wagon – more on that later. We probably won’t get much from it since you aren’t supposed to harvest much in the first few years, but it is an attractive plant, don’t you think?

Sunday yielded 5 jars of Rhubarb Ginger Jam, 6 jars of Rhubarb Raspberry Jam and one seriously messy kitchen. Next up… pickled asparagus.

The two jars in the picture are scheduled to be a hostess gift when my French class travels to Paris late this month. We will be staying at the apartment of the teacher’s in-laws. I can’t wait!