Monday, December 8, 2014

Rhubarb Lemonade And Healthy Food

I just finished making a pitcher of rhubarb lemonade and all I can say is MY OH MY!  Oh, it is good!  The picture I have with the recipe has red lemonade, but most of my rhubarb is green.  I think in the early spring I do get more red, so that will be interesting.  This was just the color of lemonade.  The recipe is to take 2 cups of rhubarb, 3/4 cup sugar, and 1-1/2 cups of water and boil and then simmer 10 minutes.  Squeeze about 5 lemons to get 1-1/4 cup of lemon juice.  I let the rhubarb cool and strained into the pitcher with the lemon juice and added 4 cups of water.  I will try to remember tomorrow to take a picture of it.

Today, I thawed some plums and pitted them.  I put them through the juicer with some apples and we had that for breakfast.  It was pretty good.  For supper, I made the same recipe before with the beets, apples, carrots, and ginger.  There were more greens with these beets, so we had a lot of juice.  I had over 5 cups.  I saved 1 cups for my husband to drink in the morning before work. 

I am going to thaw tomatoes tomorrow and make tomato soup.  I am getting excited about the garden for next year.  I moved a little bit of compost that needs to finish.  I cut down all the old dead plants in the new herb garden and getting ready to spread compost on it and I will do the same with the old herb garden.  It will need a lot of work next year.  It is still overgrown even after I moved a lot of plants to the new herb garden. 

I am trying to decide where to plant greens and beets and I want to start getting it ready.  I am going to put rabbit manure and compost and put straw on top of that and then when the ground thaws I will turn it and be ready to plant early.  I am going to see if my son and husband can make a couple of cold frames.  This year, might be the year they build a greenhouse too. 

Juicing

I bought a juicer yesterday and I have been searching for recipes for fruits and vegetables.  I have so much fruit in the he freezers and when spring comes I will have more.  I cannot keep making just jam and jelly. 

I have worried about the fiber taken out of the food, but I am going to try it.  I did not buy a real expensive one, but I did get one that will juice carrots and it even juiced sweet potatoes.

The first recipe was really nice.  I bought 3 beets.  I had some apples and I used frozen blackberries.  I think they should be thawed to get more juice out of them.  I used more than a cup of blackberries and 1/2 inch piece of peeled ginger.  That make enough juice for the 4 of us to get about 3/4 of a cup. It had a beet taste and was rich looking and had an excellent taste. 

The next recipe I used 2 sweet potatoes peeled, 4 carrots and 1/2 inch piece of ginger.  I thought it had a carrot taste.  Very nice.  This made 1/2 cup for each of us.

I will experiment and see what we like and how much it will take to get a cup each for a serving.  I would like to get where we drink 1 cup of a fruit in the morning and a cup of vegetable juice in the evening.

I was told the cleanup would be hard and it was not at all hard.  I have been told it is expensive and that it is, but I have a garden.  I have blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and rhubarb in the freezer.  I have five rhubarb plants that will be producing this spring.  I am going to make rhubarb lemonade here in the next day or so.

Organic beets are very expensive, so my plan is to grow a lot of beets and rotate them so I can keep getting them until fall.  I can freeze beets, but they will have to be blanched and that is not the same as raw juicing.  I have grown sweet potatoes and I may try again, but I hate to waste the space if it fails.  I can grow carrots too.  The herbs can also be juiced. I did juice the beet greens with the 3 beets that I bought. 

I decided that if we see any health benefits from this then I will buy a better juicer when this ones quits working.  I am also thinking of buying a Vitamix after Christmas.  My plan is for 2015 to be a healthy year and to make good use of our food.