I bought strawberries last week and texted everyone that I was making pies when I got home but wouldn’t you know it, my friend Kathy texted me and asked me out to lunch because it was her birthday.  I thought this was a pretty interesting coincidence because strawberry rhubarb pies are one of her favorites and I didn’t remember it was her birthday but had felt spiritually moved to make the pies so…..of course I went out with the birthday girl, but I didn’t get a chance to use up the strawberries that day and the family ATE THEM ALL in one evening.

Meanwhile, the rhubarb was growing and sending out invisible vibes to my mind; “I’m almost a pie…..I’m almost a pie……”  “just come and cut me down and chop me up and add me to strawberries……”  “put me in pastry!…..”

Every spring Rich, I swear, is determined to accidentally plow up the rhubarb patch.  I guard it with my everything but still in the spring of 2017 he helpfully plowed up the garden when I wasn’t home.   Later I stood by the side of the garden and silently looked down into the freshly tilled earth, hoping and searching for any sign of rhubarb.  I picked up a piece of bruised and uprooted sprout, reburied it, my heart aching.  I was sure it was all destroyed.

Let this be a lesson to remember from the rhubarb patch; There is always hope.  Plants can still be alive underneath the dirt.  Things can still grow and thrive after a near death situation.

Rhubarb is quite a marvelous plant with huge poisonous leaves– but once those are removed and carried out of the house and into the woods by a helpful child, we are left with crispy sour stalks and still that invisible voice (that must live in the stalks) saying “I’m almost a pie”.

Caleb says we should plant a strawberry patch.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

There are thousands of recipes for using up rhubarb but I found an intriguing recipe for pie in a Taste of Home cookbook that called for an egg in the filling.  Since we have a flock of hens and a never ending supply of eggs, I decided to try it.

I doubled the recipe and had enough filling for three small pies.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb pie

1 egg
1 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups sliced rhubarb
1 pint strawberries, halved
1 unbaked pastry shell

Topping:  3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup oats, and 1/2 cup butter.

In a large bowl, beat egg.  Beat in the sugar, flour and vanilla.  Gently stir in the rhubarb and strawberries.  Pour into pastry shell.

For topping, in a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and oats; cut in butter until crumbly.  Sprinkle over fruit.

Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350; bake for 35 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Cool on wire rack.

RECIPE SOURCE:  Taste of Home Baking Classics, page 107

There is currently one pie remaining.  (The family loved it.)

This was my breakfast piece this morning, along with a book I found yesterday at Goodwill for 50 cents.  It was one that I had discovered at Barnes and Noble and added to a running note on my phone “to look for at the library”.  . . . I was happy to find it at Goodwill and can’t wait to read it.

This is my current book which I have to finish first:

West With the Night, by Beryl Markham