Birthday pie and a garden update

(Crystallized ginger adds a sweet heat to strawberry-rhubarb pie with fresh mint)

There's nothing like a stay-cation to really relax and catch up on things in the garden. That's exactly what I did this week. Although my back is tired, there is nary a weed in any of the flower beds (that will last for a few days, anyway) and the vegetable garden is well on course.

How it got to be mid-May is beyond me, but here it is, and that means it's time to make M's favorite birthday treat — Strawberry-Rhubarb Birthday Pie. This time, I changed things up a bit and added some crystallized ginger and fresh mint, which was taking over one of the iris beds, like the thug it is. I pulled out a wheelbarrow full of spearmint, which will only return because mint roots run underground and spread out in all directions, making it nearly impossible to remove. So, feeling a wee bit guilty about the mint removal, I decided to use some in the pie — just a few leaves, to give it a bright note.

I love crystallized ginger, and was inspired by the many recipes Mangocheeks over at Allotment 2 Kitchen has been making lately using rhubarb and ginger. Check out her blog for a taste of Scottish vegetarian cooking and gardening. She's a bit of a pioneering woman after my own heart.




I was glad I did not have to raid my neighbor's rhubarb bed this year to make the birthday pie. The cutting they gave me took off after the second year and I had just enough to make a pie.




It is rhubarb season in the Hudson Valley, and the tangy stalks are perfect for making a variety of baked goodies. I think the rest of the stalks will develop and I might get another harvest later in the season, maybe by time my strawberry plants produce some fruit. I love the combination of strawberries and rhubarb, and thank M for turning me on to it. I had never eaten a S-R pie before I met him. This one turned out really well, with a light, buttery crust. I also used turbinado sugar, which is made from sugar cane extract. I think it gave it a different type of sweetness.

So here's the recipe.

And keep scrolling for a sneak-peek garden update.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie with Crystallized Ginger and Fresh Mint

For the crust:

1. 2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2. 2 sticks unsalted butter
3. Scant 1/2 cup ice water
4. Pinch of salt
5. Dash of cinnamon

• Put the flour, salt and cinnamon into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to aerate.
• Turn off the machine and add the butter in pieces.
• Process until the mixture looks like wet sand.
• While the machine is running, add the water through the feed tube until the dough comes together.
• Remove and pat into two disks. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before making the pie.
• (This recipe makes enough for three 9-inch pie crusts. It's perfect for a big, covered pie, with some leftover to make rugelach.)

For the filling:

1. 2 cups rhubarb, diced
2. 2 cups strawberries, sliced
3. 1/4 cup crystallized ginger
4. 4 mint leaves, chiffonaded (I think I just made up a verb)
5. 2/3 cup turbinado sugar
6. 2 2/3 teaspoons quick-cooking tapioca
7. 2 tablespoons of cranberry juice
8. Dash of cinnamon
9. 1 tablespoon butter

Mix the fruit, ginger and all the ingredients except the butter in a big bowl and gently stir. Let sit for about 15 minutes to thicken.
Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature while the filling sits as well.

• Roll out one dough disk and place in a pie plate.
• Add the filling. Dot it with the tablespoon of butter.
• Top with the second round of dough or make strips to form a pretty lattice top.
• Brush the pie with a little milk and sprinkle a little sugar on top before baking.
• Cover the edges of the pie crust with foil liners so it does not burn.
• Bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350 and continue baking for another 45 minutes until the filling is bubbly and the crust a golden brown. Remove the foil liners from the edges for the last 10-15 minutes of baking.

There's nothing like a birthday pie in your eye to celebrate!

Now, come on into the garden and I will show you around.

The Siberian Kale that wintered over is now blooming and will soon turn to seed. The leaves, however, are still tasty, not at all tough or bitter, and we have been eating them regularly.

I love this variety of kale, organic seeds from Seeds of Change, so much so, that I started some more seeds indoors. They were big enough to transplant in front of last year's crop.

The potatoes are popping up: these are the Carolinas. I also planted Reba, French Fingerlings, All Blues, Kennebec and some mismatched ones that sprouted eyes from last year. Digging up garden potatoes is like Christmas in July.

The peas are doing nicely. We've had a round of hot, sticky weather in the Hudson Valley, then the temps dropped 30 degrees and we thought winter had returned. Now it's a bit more seasonal. The peas, which like it on the cool side, have fared the ups and downs quite well.

They are getting so tall, they had a little trouble finding a foothold to get to the fence, so I interspersed some branchy twigs at the base of the plants to give them something to cling to as they climb. I planted three varieties: Sugar Sprint, Dwarf Gray Sugar Snow Peas and Caselode, which are shellers.

The garlic is thriving and getting tall. It will be great to harvest the first bulbs, probably in late June-early July. Here's hoping for some good tomatoes to go with all that garlic.

The greens are still incredible, and I've planted more seed to keep them going. The arugula is flowering and will drop its seed and repopulate the bed. I can't get enough fresh arugula.

The broccoli plants are taking shape. I started them from seed and they were a little leggy when I put them in, but the plants seem to be adjusting well. I will plant some more of the seedlings next week to stagger the crop, and then direct sow some seeds to transplant for a fall crop. I planted a row of mixed salad greens to the right of the seedlings.

This year I redid the strawberry patch because it had become a renegade of sorts. I transplanted some of the hardier plants and they are already flowering and taking hold. These are the red berries; the white ones are already forming fruit.

The onions I purchased as plants from Johnny's this year: Mars, which is a red variety, and Copra, a yellow storage onion. They weren't up for having their photo taken, but the shallots, a Holland Red, were more than obliging. Those little green specks in the foreground are coriander seedlings, sprouting up all over the place.

Giacomo the Tuxedo Cat loves to be in the middle of things. I'd like to say he helped me pot up the tomato and pepper seedlings, but his company was good enough. He's such a handsome boy, always dressed and ready for a night out on the town.

The tomato and pepper seedlings were outgrowing the mushroom containers in which I started them, so I transplanted them into larger containers. I have a nice variety of tomatoes planted: Goldie, Yellow Pear, Amish Paste, Principe Borghese, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Brandywine, Cuor di Bue, San Marzano, Roma and Red Pear. I hope and pray there's not that rampant blight that devastated the crop last year. Gardening is such a humbling experience.

Some of the seedlings are out on the sunporch, which M winterized for them. There are flats of seedlings in the windows and on snack trays in the living room, which has southern-facing windows. I can't wait to get them in the ground. But wait I do, until Memorial Day, or the first week in June, to plant them in the garden. Our frost zone can be tricky where we live in the Hudson Valley. A few years ago, I planted all the tomato and pepper plants on Memorial Day and that night there was a frost and I lost most of the plants. You never know. Unless you have protective covers, wait until the first week in June.

Bear with me as I share some of the flowers that lift my soul and inspire my spirit:

In the back of the yard, near the compost bins, woodpile and campfire pit is a nice mound that was once all rock and poison ivy. The locust trees are not the healthiest, but the woodpeckers love them. The wood anemone is about to open to the left; there's also Siberian Iris, Woodland Bleeding Heart, Cat Mint and 'Nip (which is a wild and crazy weed the kitties love), ferns, grasses, columbine, creeping myrtle and a host of narcissus, grape hyacinth and other bulbs that are long since gone. It's a nice respite back there.

The tree peonies are spectacular this year. I could not believe the Rosy Maple Moth I found one day on the doorstep. I had just picked this beauty and could not help but notice how the moth's wings mimicked the peony petals. He did not seem to mind posing for a shot on the flower, to show you what I mean. Nature is truly incredible.

This tree peony is almost as wide as a dinner plate. Its leaves remind me of the tissue paper flowers I used to make as a child.

Even before they open, regular peonies are a ball of beauty waiting to bloom. This variety I got from Locust Grove, the Samuel F. B. Morse State Historic Site in Poughkeepsie. They have heirloom peonies on site that date back to the 1800s, which they divide and sell each year. Growing a little local history is a good thing.

These striped bearded irises, which are a pale lavender, came from another local estate that hosts a plant sale each year. The Vanderbilt Mansion Historic Site has the most beautiful gardens: roses and Italian ornate-inspired. That's Ajuga in front of them.

Our one rhododendron bush has never looked better. The flowers glisten after a recent spring rain.

This white bleeding heart reminds me of pearls on a string.

And what's a garden without pansies all about? These perky little faces can be planted in March, plus they are edible. They are a double treat.

And who keeps me company as I garden? Carlos and Giacomo, my best garden buddies.

But, whew! Gardening can be tiring. You have to know when to slow down, have a glass of wine and take a little cat nap. There's always more to do.