My friend, Jeri, brought be a big bag of fresh rhubarb yesterday, so I spent the entire afternoon cutting it up and canning it.  Most of it, I made into rhubarb conserve, which is a spicy rhubarb/walnut/raisin spicy preserve.  I use it on toast, cookies, in bars and cakes.  Pretty darned good!  But some I simply baked with sugar and canned in quart and pint jars.  I can make pies, bars, cakes and other treats from this.  My own rhubarb now numbers nine plants, with the oldest now two years old and ready for light pickings.  I love my “pie plant”!

It earned that name because it was the first domestic fruit on pioneer homesteads; years ahead of apples or cherries.  And those first pies were treasured, indeed.

Today, after I put away the jars of rhubarb into the pantry, I spread many wheelbarrow loads of rotted goat manure/oat hay along the two inch high sweet corn rows in the new patch on the north end of our garden.  (That’s the place David cleared with the dozer and found the frost boil.)  I love the new room, but the soil is VERY rocky and pretty infertile, being sand and gravel.  (Never think that my new gardens are always in nice black loam!  Ha ha ha!)  Corn is a heavy feeder and that manure will do much to jump start those small plants.  After the corn is up about six inches, we’ll clean out the goat barn and toss the manure inbetween the rows as mulch and additional fertilizer.  Love that poop!!!

I also pulled the Wall’o Waters off my tomatoes, which were growing six inches out of the tops.  Our last frost date should be past now, but we did have a light frost three days ago; my potato leaves have frost damage on them in places.  The plants look great, though, so they’ll be fine.  I’ve already hilled them twice now, they’re growing so quickly.  I think we’re in for a great gardening year.

My Hopi Pale Grey squash plants, which I had to direct seed this year, emerged and were five inches across the first leaves!  Now that’s HUGE.

When you come into our garden, you’ll immediately notice a very green, weedy area, right in the middle of the main part.  No, I haven’t forgotten something.  In fact, the area is “roped off” with my long garden hose so I don’t get too close by accident with the tiller.  You see a pair of killdeer decided to nest in the garden.  By the time I’d noticed her nest, there were already two speckeled eggs in it.  Oh well, I could spare the room and she’s been fun to watch.  When we’d get a little too close, she’d jump off the nest and fan her wing to look injured and “weakly” toll us off away from her nest.

Yesterday, she hatched three chicks and today there’s another one just out of the egg this evening.  They are so CUTE.  They look like bumblebees on toothpicks.  I’m really glad I let a weedpatch stay in the garden.  It was definitely worth it!

Readers’ questions:

Mom’s doing great!

Don’t mean to be nosey, but how is your mom?  I follow your blog religiously and have looked for an update on her condition.

Bonnie Heck
Natchitoches, Louisiana

Mom is doing great!  She’s home from the hospital and enjoying the spring flowers and vegetable garden immensely!  We are so grateful. — Jackie

Mosquito repellant

You forgot one of the best reasons to use Christmas tins for food storage — MOUSE PROOF.

Larry & LeeAnn Wicker
Manson, Iowa

I have had pretty good luck sprinkling brewers yeast on my breakfast granola; it seems to thin them down to tolerable.  When they’re a real pain, I try to get out to the garden real early, then avoid it when they’re horrible….and back again in the evening…before mosquito time again.  The body and head nets really work well, but I personally hate them because I am claustrophobic and can’t stand something over my face.  I don’t even like wearing a bee vail! — Jackie

Getting corn from a feed store

I have read before that corn purchased for animal consumption should not be used for human consumption. Due to the recent floods in the Midwest I really expect corn prices to go up drastically.  Several of the emergency preparedness places are out of corn that has been packed for long term storage.  What are your thoughts on buying corn from a feed store, cleaning it and storing it?  I feel that the cornmeal and grits that you buy from the local supermarkets probably has as many chemicals in them as any corn you buy.

Chris Walters
Ellisville, Mississippi

In an emergency, I’d use elevator corn, but not until then…mostly because of rodent/bird dropping contamination.  Consider using popcorn for your cornmeal.  I just bought a 50 pound bag at the Duluth Sam’s Club for a kind of reasonable price.  Not only do we love our popcorn, but I wanted enough to use to grind, if need be.  I grind our left-over sweet corn, when we have a long enough season for me to get the second ears dry on the stalk.  That makes great cornmeal.  Sweet, too! — Jackie

Growing onions in Minnesota

I am having difficulty growing any kind of onions in Northern MN. Do you have any suggestions?

Deb Brown
Littlefork, Minnesota

Wow, you’ve got me there.  I’ve always had great onions.  They love the cooler nights of summer.  Be sure your soil has adequate drainage; onions do not like wet feet.  If you have clay soil, try to get enough organic material worked in to loosen it up because they don’t like clay, either.

I’ve had good luck planting both sets and started onion plants.  They should be set in the ground early; before your last spring frosts, as they are not damaged by light freezing and they do like the cool weather to get started.  Also, don’t plant them too deeply.

I poke the sets into the tilled ground with my thumb and fingers; they only want to be about two inches down.  Deeper and they often get spindly.

Better luck this year.  Keep at it and you’ll soon figure out your problem. — Jackie

Homemade pet food

Hi Jackie,I wanted to know if it is ok to store flour, rice, pasta in their original packages in 5 gallon drywall buckets? And do you have any recipes for homemade cat and dog food in case i would not be able to buy it.

Kathy Jasperson
Belle, Missouri

Yes it is okay for you to store your dry foods in drywall (I assume you mean sheetrock compound) buckets, provided that they were cleaned out well with hot soapy water and let air dry.

Type in “homemade dog and cat food recipes” into your browser and you’ll find a ton of great recipes.  I’m afraid we would just make pet stew for our critters; they prefer to eat our food anyway.  A boss of mine at a riding school always had a pot of dog stew simmering on the stove; his home left-over, boneless meats, a few eggs, potatoes, leftover vegetables from home, plus a handful of oatmeal and cornmeal.  The dogs loved it and did very well on their varied and tasty diet.

Their food usually smelled better than my lunch did! — Jackie

Are they sweet peas or sugar peas?

PLEASE HELP!!! I goofed and planted sweet peas and sugar peas side by side, then I forgot to mark the rows. Now I have a row with pretty pinkish/purple and white flowers and a row with only white flowers. Do you have any clue which is which? Thank you soooo much. You are awesome.

Gracie Johnston
Tangier, Indiana

I assume by “sweet peas” you mean regular garden peas, not the flower (which the seeds are poisonous).  I think you’ll find that the white flowers are your garden peas and the pinkish ones are your sugar peas.  You’ll be able to tell better when they get peas on the vines. With all this goofy weather, be glad you HAVE peas!  Enjoy! — Jackie