Homestead Anywhere and How to Preserve Rhubarb

This sentiment is going around facebook and I read some of the comments. Impossible. You need at least so many acres. Too hard of work. But it isn’t all or nothing, folks. We are all where we are supposed to be through circumstances of decision or fate. I am in an incredibly urban environment right now, decidedly un-homesteady. But, there are still many things I can do to homestead because the result is so delightful. I will have a freezer stocked with nutritious food, a gallery of canned goods in the living room, healthy drinks at the ready, flowers and herbs and a community garden. No one is an island, Lord we learned that on our last farm and we’ll remember it on our next, but it isn’t all or nothing. One can homestead anywhere.

Putting up rhubarb, for instance. A reward all year! Aunt Donna had us over to harvest some of that delicious, crisp summer treat, a celebration of getting through winter, a testament to survival, a perfect meal to surprise folks with at Christmas should you have any left! I have mentioned it before but it bears repeating how Aunt Donna taught me to put it up. I have canned it and it is good, syrupy and soft and still quite fine, but the easiest way, and the way to keep it crisp and fresh as the day one snaps it off at its base, is to freeze it.

Jpeg

Cut stalks, discarding far ends and rogue strings, into 1/2 inch chunks. 4 cups of rhubarb go into a quart sized freezer bag. Now, don’t skimp, you know how cheap trash bags are….same with freezer bags, get the good zippered ones. I despise freezer burn.

Jpeg

Add 1 cup of sugar. Zipper to one inch then suck the air of the bag with your lips and finish closing it. Label and freeze. One large bag yielded enough to share and 5 quarts of frozen rhubarb. Thank you, Aunt Donna!

Jpeg

It was lovely to have a glass of my own homemade raspberry mint kombucha while chopping. For dinner we had a pile of freshly harvested dandelions prepared in a Cherokee fashion with crisp bacon (from a local heritage pig farm) and the fat from the pan poured over the cold, tart greens sprinkled with salt.

Self sufficiency on any level is quite nice.