I was a bit worried that our rhubarb plant wouldn't survive after having been dug up from its old position when we had the new vegetable bed made and then replanted back into the new vegetable bed a year later. It did take a while to recover and I followed my sister's advice, who has two flourishing plants, to keep piling compost on. Well I did and I now I have a very healthy (and large) plant. I love rhubarb so there have been lots of crumbles and stewed rhubarb. I have also made some really gorgeous rhubarb ice-cream which didn't last longer than the day we made it, it was so tasty and so very easy to make! In fact we've made two batches.
Feeling in the need for more things to make with rhubarb I was really excited to come across this recipe in the Guardian for Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam (you need to scroll down on the link as it is recipe number 5). I lost no time, buying some Strawberries, yes I probably should have picked my own but Waitrose where selling a kilo off cheaply so I snapped them up! The jam is easy to make but you have to work out when you are going to make it as you need to prepare the fruit and then leave it overnight before making the jam the next day. Anyway, I duly followed all the instructions but the one thing I didn't do was check for a set. So having added the jam to the jars, labelled them, I started to worry that actually this was going to be a very runny jam - more like a syrup if I was being completely honest! It wouldn't do I decided so the labels came off, the jars were sterilised again and the jam was boiled up again - this is what I love about jam - its so forgiving! Anyway, this time I did check that the jam had set before filling up (less) jars! My official jam taster, Little Roo, gave it the thumbs up, which is just as well as all my jam supplies had been used up after giving out jam for the teachers presents! Now I just need my official label maker to swing into action - unfortunately she's not keen - a lot of negotiation and persuasion is going to be needed - or as I fear, I might actually have to do it myself!
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