As you know, the wacky winter weather has effected our local farmer’s start to the season. I was chatting with Farmer Elizabeth Almeida over at Fat Moon Farm recently, where the weather & land conditions (too wet to plow & plant) have ultimately led her to have to cancel her “Farmbucks” CSA for the season. However, she is still selling veggies, seeds and seedlings in the traditional farm stand manner on Thursdays from 3-6pm! I swung by for some sweet and tender pea shoots, a favorite seasonal snack for my boys. I always need to pick up at least 2 bags as the first never survives the car ride home. They taste like spring.
In other news, I swung by the Springdell farm stand for a special mystery veggie (that I’ll share about on our Sunday Dinner), and learned that Springdell is taking orders for Mother’s Day Baskets! This is a great way to let Mom know you love her (and her cooking). For 50 dollars, your basket includes bacon, sausage, coffee, bread, spinach, pancake mix, syrup, some of Zoe’s delicious homemade jam, and a potted daisy. Can you go wrong? I think not!
Ok, so back into to the chest freezer (above is a photo of mine, complete with freezer inventory lists and magnets)… Today’s recipe came from a cookbook of family recipes of employees of National Grid. I’m not sure how I came into possession of this book, I believe my mother may have found it at a yard sale and passed it along. The main ingredient, Springdell Rhubarb, came from my Summer 2014 CSA and spent the winter in my chest freezer. I must say, whenever my rhubarb-to-strawberry ratio gets out of whack in the chest freezer, this is the way I often choose to use the extra rhubarb. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of shortening, but I’ve found that substituting an equal amount of butter or a slightly lesser amount of coconut oil (about 6 tbsp) also works. I also increased the rhubarb to 2 generous cups. You could even go more but it starts to get gooey (if you don’t mind gooey, by all means!) The sugars totally carry the tartness of the rhubarb, and if you’re not too much into sweetness, you could get away with cutting back some sugar as well. Here are some photos, with the recipe card to follow.
- For the Topping
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans and walnuts)
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- For the squares
- 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons coconut oil (solid, not melted) or 1/2 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 generous cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Mix the topping ingredients until crumbly and set them aside.
- Cream the brown sugar, egg and coconut oil. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, alternating between sour cream and flour mixture, until it's all in your mixing bowl and well mixed. Fold in the rhubarb.
- Grease and flour a large baking pan before spreading your batter. Top with crumbled topping and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.
sounds delish….a recipe I added to my collection to try out soon…
The recipe says “large baking pan.” What size did you use? I looks maybe like an 8×8? Thanks!
Hi Diana,
Sorry for the delayed response to your good question! I’m away from my pans until tomorrow night, but I believe it’s an 11 1/2×9 pan. I’ll confirm when I get home and edit this comment. Thanks for your patience! 🙂 Jess
Actually, I went ahead and did it in a 9×13 and it turned out great as far as thickness. I also subbed plain yogurt for the sour cream, which worked fine and reduced the sugar (1c brown in the batter and 1/4 cup in the topping). I did not sample since I’m not eating wheat or sugar right now, but the eaters said it was awesome and went back for seconds!
Finally got home and had a moment to check, the pan I used was a glass 8 X 11 1/2 baking dish. So glad to hear the 9 X 13 pan worked out ok and nice adaptation with the yogurt! 🙂