Musings and Tidbits

It feels like we've gotten a good strawberry haul from the garden this year, to the point where I didn't feel like I needed to buy any strawberries at the farmer's market yesterday. I'm also trying to be mindful about what I put into the freezer, relative to what I actually take out and use. I don't find frozen strawberries to be quite as delicious as fresh, and I find strawberry jam to generally be too sweet, so this year I'm trying to figure out as many ways as I can to use the fresh ones while they're fresh.

Oatmeal is always a good conduit for fresh fruit.


Let's be honest, I like to add a lot of condiments to my oatmeal. Chia seeds, amaranth seeds, flax meal, cinnamon, yogurt, honey, almonds, pumpkin seeds, Zante currants...but a lot of that seems necessary to add protein and fiber so I'm not hungry again in an hour.

Today I used rhubarb we got from the farmer's market along with the strawberries, to make strawberry-rhubarb almond tarts:


I used this crust and almond filling recipe from some time ago, then baked the tarts for about 25 minutes at 375 °F.

I think the tarts could have benefited from another 5-10 minutes in the oven, but they were still so good!



The rhubarb was still a bit on the crunchy side, but I kind of liked that for the sake of being able to really taste it in all its sweet, tart freshness.

I'm also excited that S is excited about working on things in the garden (something tells me he needed a break from computer screens!). Today he dug out the BBQ-pit bed and expanded it by a couple square feet. He sifted out and added in some compost, noting that there were still a TON of worms in the compost. Then he planted some tomatoes, peppers, and basil in the BBQ bed. He has also been helping to de-jungle the main garden bed, and did a ton of pruning.

I can't wait until sour cherry season. I have PLANS for sour cherries.