Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit my friend Ruth, who had told us she had "some" rhubarb in her garden that I could have to make jillicious produce with. When we got to her house we were faced with a monster rhubarb patch with howge stalks, each about 3 foot long! After Ruth told us to pick way more than I'd expected, we returned home with what felt like my body weight in rhubarb and I got cracking with my rhubarby recipes.


First off I made Spring rhubarb relish, a light fruity relish that is made with rhubarb and sultanas, with a hint of fresh ginger, cloves and cinnamon from the spice bag that is used as the mixture is cooking. There are several good things about this relish....

1. It contains no onions (so perfect for those of you who don't like onions!)
2. It doesn't need to mature before you can tuck in......so you can eat it NOW!
3. It is v tasty, especially in a cheese sarnie!

Next up was Rhubarb and ginger jam, which might sound a bit odd, but rhubarb and pieces of preserved ginger are a winning combination! The first batch I made used an equal amount of fruit to sugar and the resulting jam is sweet and claggy (as we say up north) - so probably best on toast, and for those with a sweet tooth! I made a second batch of the jam with rhubarb kindly donated by Anastasia from work, this time using less sugar - and ended up with a softer set jam - perfect to have on bread and butter.

So, I therefore have for sale:

• 14 jars of Spring Rhubarb relish
• 6 jars of claggy Rhubarb and Ginger jam
• 6 jars of soft set Rhubarb and Ginger jam

All are priced at £2.95 per jar (please return your empty jars to me, so that I can use them again. I'll give you 20p per jar off your next purchase). Email me on jill.mceachern@ntlworld.com if you'd like to place an order, and please keep an eye on the sidebar of this blog, as I'll be updating it with numbers of jars available. Remember when they're gone, they're gone!!

If anyone would like to donate unwanted or excess rhubarb or other fruit or veg, please let me know - in return, I'll give you a jar or two of the preserves I have made from it (Thanks Ruth and Anastasia for getting the ball rolling!)