Whiteley Creek Homestead

strawberry rhubarb mousse

Freshly-cut rhubarb stalks make a lovely springtime bouquet.

Then, made into a lightly sweetened sauce thickened with gelatin and whipped cream folded in... the rhubarb becomes a nutritious summertime dessert.

Everyday, I add Great Lakes Gelatin (green canister) to my juice flavored water (i.e., pomegranate, tart cherry, aloe) or hot tea. It is flavorless and dissolves rapidly in both cold and hot beverages. Whenever I want to gel anything, as in this recipe, I use Great Lakes Gelatin (orange canister). The easiest method is to mix the powder with a portion of the liquid called for in the recipe, then add it to the hot mixture where it will quickly dissolve. This prevents hard lumps that struggle to dissolve.

Strawberry Rhubarb Mousse

Slight adaptation of a recipe in an Azure Standard May-June 2015 Sales Flyer

¾ cup water, divided

1 tbsp beef gelatin (I used 2 tbsp Great Lakes Gelatin -orange canister.)

1 cup raspberries (I subbed 1-10 oz pkg frozen strawberries.)

3 cups chopped rhubarb (I used 4 cups.)

½ cup honey (I used 1/3 cup honey + 2 tbsp raw sugar.)

¾ cup heavy cream

Combine ¼ cup water and the gelatin; set aside. In a saucepan, combine remaining ½ cup water, raspberries (or strawberries), rhubarb, and honey. (Because I use raw unfiltered honey and raw sugar, I waited to add the honey and sugar to the cooked and cooled mixture.) Bring to a boil and cook a couple minutes until rhubarb is just tender. (I simmered it a bit longer to achieve a softer, sauce consistency.) Remove from heat and stir in gelatin mixture. Stir until gelatin is dissolved. Set aside until it cools. (if using raw sugar and honey, add it now after mixture cools. Beat the cream until stiff. (Instead, I beat it until it was softly thickened, not stiff. I found that this produced a fluffier end-product than previous trials using “stiff” whipped cream.) Fold cream into cooled fruit mixture. Spoon into individual dessert dishes or a serving bowl. Set in the fridge for a couple hours. (It gels quite rapidly.) 

cotyledons vs. true leaves

This week, the overnight temps are forecast to be consistently in the 50s and the daytime highs in the low 70s, so today I moved my zucchini plants, that I had been growing in pots in my greenhouse, into my garden beds. This year, for the first time, I got a head start on my sweetcorn, too.

Plants are a miraculous thing. When a seed sprouts, it grows two leaves called cotyledons that are a food source for the plant until "true leaves" form. (See the two large spoon-shaped leaves at the base of the zucchini plant in the photo below.) The true leaves, which look like the plant's mature leaves, are now able to feed the plant through the process of photosynthesis. The cotyledons' job is now finished, so the two leaves decay and fall off the plant.