Rhubarb crumble (from NYTimes)

This past Saturday I volunteered at the "giving garden" of a local church as part of my Master Gardener intern requirement. We were working on the floral zones, but other volunteers were clearing out vegetable patches. They wanted all the excess produce gone since the pantry was closed so I came home with the CRUNCHIEST CUCUMBER I've ever had, considering it was just picked moments before by an adorable 8-year old there with her mom. I also scored ~10 long 16" stalks of rhubarb and a dozen tomatoes from--oddly enough--the county extension test field where I'm taking my MG course.

The cucumber has been eaten, the tomatoes are destined for a tomato pie as my snack donation next Thursday and the rhubarb was turned into cobbler.

I've only prepared rhubarb once before in my life and--while tasty--the resulting mess in/on/around my oven was a total disaster.

So this time I decided to just cook up the rhubarb and then figure out what to do with it so it didn't go to waste. I cut all the stalks into 1/4" pieces until I had 4 packed cups. Then I added 1/4 C sugar and the juice of one small orange to a saucepan with the slices. Cooked for about 5-10 minutes until the pieces were mostly soft, THEN lifted out all the pieces, leaving the juices behind in the pot. THEN I reduced the liquid to a syrup. The color was insipid so I added a bit of red food gel. Added the reduced liquid back into the rhubarb slices and tasted it. Wow...okay...this was good. Sweet while simultaneously tart.

Then today I decided to makes something for my 82-year old neighbor and rhubarb was the likely candidate. But since I'm also lazy and doing everything I could to procrastinate submitting my MG mid-term (because then I wouldn't be able to, yet again, change an answer...yet again.) I checked the NYTimes and filtered on the highest rating. There were two in the 2,000 positive votes range: upside down cake by Melissa Clark and crumble by Mark Bittman. Crumble was easier and I'm all for easy. I used his formula but adjusted based on comments, such as adding more oats, less brown sugar and a tad more cinnamon. I think I added a bit more pecans too. Oh...and another comment said to add some cornstarch so it didn't overflow (see horror story above) so I stirred 1 TBL cornstarch into the fruit before the topping went on.

Anyway, it was a success. I finished off my ramekin, but haven't passed the others along to the neighbors yet. I'm really hoping they show up soon because it's looking pretty tempting from where I'm sitting.

Here is Bittman's recipe. Note that he DOES NOT cook his rhubarb first, so his final baking time is longer. Mine baked for 30 minutes since my fruit was already mostly cooked. Also...based on comments, I simply melted my butter, added the flour, 1/2 C brown sugar and spice (3/4 tsp), then 3/4 C rolled oats and ~3/4 C pecans. Mine made 3 ramekins full

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

• 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for greasing pan
• 2½ to 3 pounds rhubarb, trimmed, tough strings removed, and cut into 1½-inch pieces (about 5 to 6 cups)
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange or lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon orange or lemon zest
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
• Pinch salt
• ½ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup pecans

1. Step 1
   Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8- or 9-inch square baking or gratin dish with a little butter. Toss rhubarb with white sugar, orange or lemon juice and zest, and spread in baking dish.
2. Step 2
   Put the 6 tablespoons butter in a food processor along with brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt, and pulse for about 20 or 30 seconds, until it looks like small peas and just begins to clump together. Add oats and pecans and pulse just a few times to combine.
3. Step 3
   Crumble the topping over rhubarb and bake until golden and beginning to brown, 45 to 50 minutes.

Congrats on your success in the kitchen and your garden! Wow - you're doing the master gardener classes/certification. I've considered it but then I remember that I've sworn to never take an academic test again after my masters. A taste test I'm still willing to do.

I have several 'cut flower gardens' (have you heard of Floret Farms) and started a program through my garden club and the food bank that the club supports (and where hubby and I volunteer) where several of us bring small bouquets during gardening season to give to clients when they come in for their groceries. We've already done 130 bouquets this year! I also started bouquets from my garden this summer to raise money for the charity. Trust me when I say that I can do tons of bouquets (we have 40 dahlia plants alone.....) LOL!

Wow, deb I’m impressed with your bouquets. I follow floret farms!

I’m always envious of all the rhubarb other parts of the country get . I’m lucky to find it at all and have never seen it for less than $4lb. I do try to make this pie at least once a year when the magic rhubarb shows up fleetingly in the market. Excited pie planning starts right away. Pretty sure I use my standard all American pie dough from t&t here, but otherwise it’s the same. Neighbors look forward to when I make it as well. No strawberries getting in the way of the rarified ’barb.