It was a great week. The vegetable garden is finished except for a few less hardy things like eggplant and an assortment of peppers; bell, jalapeno and cayenne that I’ll plant after the full moon in June. Deer fence is up and flagged, there’s a new scarecrow and I found some precious straw to lay between the rows to keep the weeds down. I used marsh hay last year and ended up with even more weeds due to all of the seeds in the hay. Now, with a little help from Mother Nature, we wait for the magic to happen. Every year, I’m amazed how such tiny little seeds grow into such mammoth food producing plants. When the seed package says, “space plants three feet apart”, heed the advice. Last year, I planted the cucumbers and zucchini to tight and ended up with powdery mildew all over their leaves. Vegetables need lots of room to breathe. This year, everything has lots of space to do their thing.

I chuckled as I put up the bamboo poles for my pole beans, remembering the year that my beans only produced from three feet high and above. I’d made a teepee of beans. Every day, I would go out to the garden to pick vegetables for the dinner. I couldn’t figure out why the beans only grew from half way up the stalks until I spied a large pile of bean stems inside the teepee. The girls had been picking and eating the beans right off the stalks and hiding the evidence inside the ‘tent’.. That evening at dinner, I told Ralph about my strange bean plants. The girls froze. I never let on that I’d discovered the evidence. I loved the idea of them creeping into the garden, eating fresh beans and feeling devilish. I thought it was adorable.

Memories like this press upon me how quickly my world is changing. Now, here I am putting up a pole bean tent for my grandson. Where did the time go?

The rhubarb in my vegetable garden is only two years old, but already producing well. I thought it would be fun to haul out my ice cream machine and whip up some Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet for dinner tonight. It’s slightly tart, very fresh and the color is to die for.

Although I’m calling this recipe Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet, it’d be more aptly named Rhubarb Strawberry Sorbet due to the larger amount of rhubarb, but that would sound weird. Call it what you want. I call it drool-worthy!

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB SORBET

• 2 cups of chopped fresh rhubarb between 2-3 stalks
• 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries, I used frozen but fresh would be lovely
• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 1 1/2 cups of white granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons of lime zest

THE STEPS

1. Place the strawberries, rhubarb, water, sugar and zest into a medium pot over medium-high heat.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Lower the heat to simmer.
4. Cook until the sugar has dissolved and the rhubarb has disintegrated.
5. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
6. Working in batches, place half of the pot’s contents into your food processor and pulse until smooth. There will still be some bits, but they add texture.
7. Place in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until totally chilled, 3 hours or overnight. If you’re in a hurry put it in the freezer, stirring it every 20 minutes until it’s cold.
8. Process in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
9. You can serve it straight from the ice cream machine or decant your sorbet into a freezer proof container and freeze until firm.
10. Once it’s frozen, you may need to let it thaw a bit at room temperature to soften before scooping

THE LOVE: If you want a smoother consistancy, put your cooked rhubarb mixture through a food mill using the smallest disc or push it through a fine sieve with the back of a spoon.

Thanks for reading.