The first day of summer has brought us our first harvest. The Pineapple mint and Chocolate mint are lovely right now...I couldn't resist harvesting some. I am air-drying them along side the Sweetie tomato plants that remain on the potting bench inside the covered deck. Normally I would use the dehydrator to dry the herbs but today I am drying our first batch of Rhubarb Lace, a recipe I found in Food Drying with an Attitude by Mary T. Bell.
The drying process is taken a little longer than predicted in the dehydrator's instruction booklet. I think I may need to spread the rhubarb puree more evenly in the future.
Rhubarb Lace
3 cups fresh rhubarb, cut in 1-inch pieces
3 cups boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
3 strawberries, fresh or frozen
1 tbsp strawberry gelatin
1/8 tsp ginger
Place rhubarb in a stainless steel pot and cover with boiling water. Let it set at least 1 hour, until rhubarb changes colour. this blanching help eliminate some of the acidity, so less sweetener is needed. it also softens the texture, which makes it easier to puree.
Drain off water. Puree rhubarb in a blender in small batch to avoid overtaxing the blender. it may be necessary to add a little water or juice to get the rhubarb to blend. add the remaining four ingredients and puree until smooth. spread puree evenly on a lightly oiled leather sheet. dry at 110 to 135 degrees. dry until the leather peels off easily without any wet or sticky spots.
Barry harvested two large bowls of garlic scapes. These curly tendrils actually are the garlic's flower stalk and should be removed to promote bulb growth instead of seed. We intend to dehydrate some of the scapes for future use. And the rest...apparently garlic scapes make tasty pesto...pesto sauce on pasta or a salad...sounds good to me!
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