Rhubarb Butter Crunch

Mom gave me this recipe for a dessert that's literally easier than pie to make! I LOVE Rhubarb Pie, but don't always have the time to mix one up. I've adapted the original recipe to my liking, and hope you can give it a try!

Rhubarb Butter Crunch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 X 9 pan with nonstick spray. In a bowl, mix

6 cups of Rhubarb (cut into 1/2" pieces),

1/2 cup white Sugar
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar

3/4 cup Flour

2 teaspoons Cinnamon &

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Pour into prepared pan. In another bowl combine

1 stick butter (cut into small pieces)

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup white Sugar

1/2 cup Flour &

1/2 cup Rolled Oats

Mix together with your fingertips til blended and crumbly, then sprinkle on top of Rhubarb mixture. Bake for about 1/2 hour. Serve warm with whipped cream or with vanilla ice cream.

Happy Mother's Day

Goodness... Mother's Day is almost over, but I must send a Mother's Day greeting to all of the moms who take the time to read my silly blog! Thank you, and Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all spent a wonderful day amongst those you love and love you back, as I did! My four children, along with their "families" and my mom were up for supper this evening!
Friday, Saturday and today were spent delivering Mother's Day arrangements for a local florist my brother works for... mom helped me Friday and my daughter helped yesterday and today. Needless to say, I was not able to spend ANY time in the gardens this weekend; mom and I took only a brief stroll around them tonight and watered the seedlings in the greenhouse before we headed to the barn to tuck in the chickens and other birds. The coyotes and owls come very near at night, so I dare not leave even the geese out in the main fenced-in area... they ALL go in the barn!
Mom was up earlier this week to help rip out perhaps a 30- by 3- foot section of sod. This spot has now become a perennial border in front of the fence between the two big gardens, as I had started several plants last summer and they needed a new home. I transplanted three peonies (divided into five!) mom had given me years ago as the backbone of this border, and filled in between with beebalm, catmint, baby's breath, lupine, and so on. The next day, my daughter and I drove out into the woods and gathered fallen stones from a section of stone wall way out back. (My daughter photographed parts of this particular wall... I wonder whose hands built it and what the land looked like and was used for way back then...) We used these fallen stones to line the border, and also put several in the vegetable garden to surround an old cement bench brought up from mom's. I planted this area with hollyhock, catmint, scented iris, chives, and other perennials. We need to collect more stones to line the asparagus patch; perhaps sometime this week...
Well, before I close, I need to say how thankful I am for MY mom. I so appreciate all the hours she spends helping me around here weeding, planting, putting up fence, doing dishes at family get-togethers (even on Mother's Day!), and on and on. But mostly I am grateful for her company and helping the time and work go by quickly, often with great conversation, advice, and LOTS of laughter! I love you, Mom!

May Day!

My, oh my... the first of May...
Well, I've gotten about one-fifth of those danged artichokes dug up and tossed (literally) out of the garden. Good grief! The black flies are swarming, but it's been cooler with a beautiful rain the past two evenings... just perfect because we transplanted garlic, top onions, catnip, and so on. Mom gave me several hours help again, and the main garden is weeded, cultivated and raked off. The back berry garden is weeded and hoed, as is the Strawberry Patch. As a matter of fact, I finally got around to planting lettuces and spinach, and spread compost atop the asparagus patch and all the transplants, so things look good! At least I feel like maybe we've gotten the upper hand thus far in the gardens... for the time-being. The rain has given a jolt to everything... flowers are blooming, trees are slowly beginning to leaf out. Thus, I will share a poem from one of my most-loved old-fashioned poets, James Whitcomb Riley. This is taken from Riley Farm Rhymes, a book of farm-related prose published in 1901 that mom gave me some years ago...

When The Green Gits Back In The Trees
In spring, when the green gits back in the trees,
And the sun comes out and stays,
And yer boots pulls on with a good tight squeeze,
And you think of yer bare-foot days;
When you ort to work and you want to not,
And you and yer wife agrees

It's time to spade up the garden-lot,
When the green gits back in the trees
Well! work is the least o' my idees
When the green, you know, gits back in the trees!

When the green gits back in the trees, and bees
Is a-buzzin' aroun' ag'in
In that kind of a lazy go-as-you-please
Old gait they bum roun' in;
When the groun's all bald whare the hay-rick stood,
And the crick's riz, and the breeze
Coaxes the bloom in the old dogwood,
And green gits back in the trees,-
I like, as I say, in sich scenes as these,
The time when the green gits back in the trees!

When the whole tail-fethers o' Wintertime
Is all pulled out and gone!
And the sap it thaws and begins to climb,
And the swet it starts out on
A feller's forred, a-gittin' down
At the old spring on his knees-
I kindo' like jest a-loaferin' roun'
When the green gits back in the trees-
Jest a-potterin' roun' as I- durn- please-

When the green, you know, gits back in the trees!