Out in the Rhubarb Patch

When something is in abundance it is taken for granted.... Rhubarb for instance. There sits a lonely rhubarb patch acting as a border guard to what was once a huge garden; but having kids at home made gardening worth while, all that cheap labor is now grown and raising there own families.

For years working in industry; gardening was an escape from the pressures of managing a plant full of radical union Steelworkers. I shouldn’t complain, there were many really good employees who brightened the days the radicals tried to destroy. The good people made going to work bearable. But my point is gardening is therapy. We got into the greenhouse business after industry.
Being in the greenhouse business left little time for gardening.

For years, we gave away more rhubarb than we ever used. Still do. But! I became determined to make use of some of it after tasting the wife’s first Rhubarb Coffee cake of the 2010 season.

I am pretty good at giving orders, although, I am finding out that I am no longer in management. I have become an employee.
Here is how it goes.
Me...“ How about making one of those Rhubarb Custard Pies”?
The good woman or should I say, my new Boss...“Make it yourself”.
“Okay! How”?
“Follow the recipe”
“But, I don’t know how to make a crust”.
“Well then, you will just have to go to the store and buy a frozen pie shell”.
So off to the store I went.

Follow the recipe, she said.
My first attempt turned out pretty darn good, if I do say, so. The crust didn’t hold a candle to hers but Hey! I wasn’t planning on winning a ribbon.
Rhubarb Custard Pie
2 cups diced rhubarb
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon milk
1 Tablespoon melted butter
1 teasp vanilla
1 teasp salt
2 eggs
Mix all together and pour in a pie shell.
Bake 450f for 10 mins.
Then turn temp down to 350f baking another 40 mins.
Easy enough for a guy to do.

I think, I will tackle a Strawberry Rhubarb pie next. That is, if the Boss will pick the berries. I am betting she will tell me where to go.