Rhubarb

I gave Steve the first harvest of Rhubarb so the 2nd was for me. I made some rhubarb crumble and cooked it using the wood stove. Quite successful, apart from the recipe, far too much sugar for my taste. The next one will have the amount halved.

The wood stove is, quite frankly, the best bit of kit I've bought in some time. A lot of problems I had are now resources. For example, the large pile of rotten wood in the barn is no longer a disposal problem but a valuable resource. (ie it saves me the money it costs to buy firewood.). Similarly, the cardboard boxes are now kindling rather than rubbish to be thrown away.

As a side effect, the wood ash produced is a useful produc all in itself. I can use it on the garden as a fertiliser (well I use it as a substitute for lime where limes recommended in the gardening books) or I can use it to make lye. A project I want to do some time this year is to make soap which needs lye and fat.