 What does it taste like? Is that yaki? Meethi. Hi there and welcome to my channel. So today's video is going to be all about rhubarb and I'm going to show you three delicious quick and easy recipes that you can make with fresh rhubarb from your garden. So rhubarb is a very cold hardy perennial that grows very well here in zone 3 and all the way up to zone 8. You could pretty much guarantee that if you went into any old farm homestead across the prairies that you will find a rhubarb patch that just grows every year. It requires very little maintenance and will just grow on its own. One thing to note about rhubarb is the leaves can be quite toxic and slightly poisonous. So definitely do not eat these or put these in your salad but they are safe once you've removed them to add to your compost pile so you can do that. So I'm just going to give you a close-up view here of what this one rhubarb plant looks like here. As you can see it has got a ton of growth coming off of it. This is actually a plant that I dug up from my mom and dad's farm about five years ago through it in the dirt here in a spot that is, gets morning sun but doesn't get a whole bunch of sunlight and you know five years later here's what it looks like. It's just massive. So if you ever want to transplant or move rhubarb you can just go in early spring so it's a little it's not a good time right now or later in the fall and just dig out you know a portion of it and find a new spot for it. So when you're harvesting rhubarb they recommend you don't use a knife just reach in with your hand go down as low as you can on the stalk and pull. That way the rhubarb plant is kind of triggered it realizes that it's you know lost one of its stalks and it might shoot up some more growth. So I'm just looking for some of the bigger stalks twisting them off. By kind of pruning them down the plant will maybe slown on bolting. Once the summer heat hits rhubarb usually bolts and sends up a flower. Okay so we have some beautiful stalks of rhubarb here that we're gonna go inside and I'm gonna show you how to cook some of these up. So the first recipe I'm gonna show you is a rhubarb compote or rhubarb sauce. It's very simple recipe with just two ingredients. I'm gonna start off with cutting up one cup of rhubarb and adding half a cup of sugar. Now you can make this recipe as tart or as sweet as you prefer. I always start off with a smaller amount of sugar and once it's done cooking you can taste it and if you need it sweeter you can always add more. So just let that sugar and rhubarb sit for about 10 minutes so that some of the juices come out and you don't have to worry about it burning. Then just turn on the stove to a medium low heat and bring it to a slow simmer. So once it starts simmering you can just turn it down to low heat and let it simmer away for about 10 minutes or so until the rhubarb has fully broken down. Now at this time you can add some spices or flavoring if you'd like. You can use nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, maybe even some fresh ground ginger. I'm gonna add some vanilla and a little bit of cinnamon to mine. And then once you have that stirred in you can turn off the heat and let it cool. So this raspberry sauce goes great on ice cream or on your pancakes or waffles. I'm having it today with some Greek yogurt and a little bit of granola. You can store this rhubarb compote in your fridge for up to two weeks or you can even freeze it for up to three months. The next recipe we're going to make is a rhubarb strawberry chia jam. So for this you only need some rhubarb, strawberries, fresh lemon. I'm gonna be sweetening it with honey today. You can always use white sugar or coconut sugar and chia seeds. So the first thing you need to do is just chop up your rhubarb and strawberries into small pieces. In this batch today I'm using about two cups of fruit. Start off by putting it into a saucepan on medium-low heat and I am squeezing in about two teaspoons of fresh lemon juice and I'm going to be using about a quarter cup of honey as my sweetener. Again it's all about your preference whether you like it more tart or more sweet. You can always add more sweetener to it after you've given it a taste. So once I have stirred in that lemon and honey I'm going to just let it come to a slow simmer. So you then bring your mixture to a slow simmer and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Then I like to take a potato masher and just mash up that fruit even more to get a nice thick consistency. Again I like to add a little bit of vanilla to give it a little extra flavor and then from there you are ready to add in your chia seeds. So to this two cup mixture I'll be adding one tablespoon of chia seeds. You want to stir them in until fully incorporated. The chia seeds will help thicken the mixture and give it a nice jam-like consistency. So you can then turn off the heat and let it cool down to room temperature. So this easy to make naturally sweetened jam is delicious to have on toast or a fresh piece of bread or a hot biscuit fresh out of the oven. This will keep in the fridge for two to three weeks and if you make a big batch you can always freeze it in the freezer for up to three months. So the third and final recipe is a rhubarb custard pie and this is something that my grandmother always made that I just absolutely loved. She of course probably used a homemade pie crust but for today's recipe I'm using a prepared frozen pie crust. I've added some strawberries in with my rhubarb which is totally optional but we all know that rhubarb and strawberry go so good together. So once you got your pie crust filled it's time to put together the ingredients for the custard filling. First ingredient is two beaten eggs, three tablespoons of flour, one cup of sugar, two tablespoons of milk, a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. So you're ready to stir it all together and blend it really well until you have a nice thick but slightly runny consistency. And now your custard mixture is all ready to slowly drizzle all over the rhubarb and strawberry mixture. After you filled it up with your custard mixture give it a good tap to make sure there's no air pockets and that custard is in all the nooks and crannies. I finish it off by adding a few dabs of butter to the top and it's ready to go into the oven. I also recommend putting it on a cookie sheet because it probably will boil over a little bit in your oven. So this goes into a 375 degree oven for about 55 minutes. And here's what the pie looks like after it comes out of the oven. It smells amazing and it is a pie that you do not want to eat warm so make sure you let it cool to room temperature and put it in the fridge before serving. If you don't have time to whip up any of these delicious rhubarb recipes remember that rhubarb freezes well. You can keep it in your freezer for up to a year. Save it for some recipes down the road. If you enjoyed watching this video on how to make some delicious recipes with fresh rhubarb from your garden please hit that like button. I'd love to see your comments and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos coming to the channel. Thank you for watching.