RHUBARB CRISP

3 cups chopped rhubarb (approx.)
1/2 cup sugar (could be more or less depending on the sweetness desired)
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soft butter or margarine

Layer rhubarb with sugar and lemon juice into an 8” or 9” round or square pan.
Combine oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Add butter or margarine and mix until texture is like crumbs.
Sprinkle over rhubarb and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, until slightly brown and some rhubarb juices rise to the top of the dessert.
Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.


Most Grandmas that grew up on a Saskatchewan farm know all about the fruit called rhubarb. It was used for desserts such as pies, cakes, platz, etc. and every farm had rhubarb plants. Rhubarb needs more sugar in the recipes than most fruits because of its tartness. Actually rhubarb is one of the few perennial vegetables, however, we use it as a fruit.

This Rhubarb Crisp Dessert is a real favourite of my granddaughter’s, although it was never made by my Mother.

Elva Epp

Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything by Mary Clemens Meyer, Susanna Meyer, Herald Press, 2010.

You can’t get much closer to the source of your food than canning or preserving it yourself, and Saving the Seasons shows you how through clear instructions and step-by-step pictures. Loaded with helpful tips, charts and user-friendly recipes for beginners and experts alike, you will enjoy the season’s bounty all year long!

Borrow this title from the MC Canada Resource Centre online catalogue here.

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Rhubarb Juice

After the long winter one of the first perennial plants to show its head is the hardy rhubarb. The best time to pick rhubarb is early in the season before it forms its seed tufts.

One of the things I like to make is Rhubarb Juice. This recipe is quite tart and not too sweet. It works very well when used with ginger ale or when mixed into a punch with orange juice, lemon juice and ginger ale.

Rhubarb Juice
Wash and cut rhubarb, cover with water and boil until soft.
Strain through a colander and then through a fine sieve or bag.
Take 12 cups of juice add 1 cup sugar (scant) and 1 pkg raspberry jello. Mix well.
Bring to a boil and boil for 12 minutes. Pour into jars and seal.
Enjoy. This is my Mom’s recipe - our family liked the juice quite well.

Donna Driedger

Rhubarb

If you decide to travel the province of Saskatchewan looking for old homesteads you can see rhubarb plants that identify many places where pioneers settled as early as 1900.

The settlers always defined their homestead with a border of poplar trees, lilacs, caraganas and an odd apple tree. Somewhere in the corner was usually a rhubarb plant. To this day, the buildings have all disappeared but the growth of trees and rhubarb are still intact and the homestead is thereby identified.

We wondered how pioneers transported the root of the plant from the homeland and how long plants like that last. The pioneers recognized that rhubarb had a diversity of uses and provided vitamins that helped family health.

4 Grandmas 4 U

Rhubarb Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped fine
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

Topping:
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cream brown sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Alternately stir in flour, soda and buttermilk. When mixture is mixed, fold in chopped rhubarb. Add the topping. Bake in 9x13” pan for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

This recipe was passed on to me by Anita Froese. A great coffee cake.

Marlene Froese

Rhubarb Platz

Base: Crumbs:
1/2 cup margarine 1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups flour 1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder 1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup half milk, half cream

Blend margarine, flour, baking powder and salt till crumbly. Add milk and cream mixture. Blend to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Do not overmix as it will toughen dough.

Roll out on well floured board to fit 10x15” cookie sheet. Place fruit mixture of choice to cover base. Top with crumb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until nicely browned.

Fruit: Rhubarb - 4 cups finely chopped rhubarb, 1 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tbsp tapioca or cornstarch.

Enjoy the platz delight.

Hedie Harder

BLANKETS FOR HAITI

The Women in Mission at Grace Mennonite Church, Steinbach, Man., have been putting together blankets for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) for many years. The local MCC Thrift Store and people from the church donate quilt tops, fabric for the backing and used sheets etc. for the filler. Peter Dick, a retired school teacher, has taken up sewing as his retirement project and he sews most of our blanket tops.
For the month of January, Mel Letkeman, our pastor, used James 2:14-17 as his theme for Sunday morning worship. When the earthquake struck in Haiti on January 12, he challenged the congregation to make blankets for Haiti. Schedules were set up and different groups came to the church and tied the blankets. The Junior and Senior youth groups, Sunday School classes, small groups and many individuals all came and got involved. There was usually food, much laughter and many sore fingers.
At the end of each evening, the completed blankets were carried up to the sanctuary and artfully arranged by Elsie Kroeker and Vi Kreutzer, forming a beautiful colourful backdrop on the podium at the front of the church. Within three weeks, about 100 different individuals helped to complete 110 blankets!
The blankets have been taken to MCC and we miss them. However, for those who helped complete this project, it is satisfying to know that these blankets are keeping many people warm and that we at Grace Mennonite had the opportunity to sew and laugh with each other.

Written by Irene Rempel
Photo by Elsie Kroeker