Wordless Wednesday: Mason Bees Make an Appearance

We have two new bee houses in the garden this year.  Neither seem to be inhabited yet but today we had our first sighting of one of these important solitary pollinators this afternoon.  I think its an orchard mason bee but I'm not 100% sure.  Hope to be seeing many more this season though.

Recipe: Ruby Red Rhubarb Preserves

Rhubarb is in full season so when we left the farm we also left with a cooler full of rhubarb.  

Its also hard to believe that this little plant from April...

is now lovely tender stalks of rhubarb...

So what to do with A gazillion stalks of gorgeous organic rhubarb? Make a simple preserve to eat all summer. On ice cream, on toast, on pancakes, with a spoon straight out of the jar, the possibilities are endless!

This really isn't a recipe as much as a rule.  60% fruit and 40% sugar makes a nice preserve.  In this case 4 cups of rhubarb, 2 cups of strawberries and 4 cups of organic cane sugar makes a very nice (very sweet) mix.  I also threw in 2 small empire apples just to thicken things up.

Take your fruit, chop it up, add the sugar, mix them up and then let the fruit sweat all night in the fridge.

First thing in the morning, cook it all up on the stove until its the desired consistency.  Do it right away before things get too hot.  Its almost summer, hardly the time to have 4 pots of boiling water on the stove.


Then pack and seal according to your good canning practices and pass it out to everyone you see that day.  It really is gorgeous.  

Some other great rhubarb recipes from the overwhelming internet:


Well Preserved has a great stewed rhubarb recipe that uses much less sugar,
Shana over at Folks Gotta Eat makes a mean rhubarb cake,
Kate Payne is in the middle of rhubarb fest over on her blog & you can enter the giveaway for her great book since it also discusses some great preserving basics.