April and May have been rather wet, resulting in an explosion of growth at the allotment. I have two rhubarb plants, one is only a year old but the other I inherited with the plot and it produces the most enormous stems. Rhubarb likes rain and stinging nettles seem to grow really well around the rhubarb so with the huge amount of growth over the past few weeks, the nettles have kept the sunlight off the stems. This means that not only to I have giant rhubarb but the stems are a beautiful dark pink colour.
Last year the rhubarb champagne I made was not as explosive or as nice as the year before. I couldn't work out why until I checked my blog post from last year for the recipe and it was not the one from my recipe book. So I thought I should share the more explosive recipe because it is delicious and has been known to make holes in people's ceilings.
I am very proud to say that out of the 5 ingredients needed to make rhubarb champagne, 80% were sourced from the UK. Up until last night, I didn't even realise that sugar beet was grown in England. Apparently Silver Spoon only use sugar from British Farmers which I think is brilliant. It was only the lemon that didn't come from this country but Spain isn't too far away so I guess the food miles are still less than they could be.
20 cups of cold water
Chop up the rhubarb and the lemon, place in a large saucepan and add the sugar, vinegar and stir. Leave for no more than 48 hours, then stained and bottle. It should be ready in about 3 weeks. I recommend that you vent the gas daily, to prevent explosions!
This year however I was missing the small boy who usually does the stirring. It is the first time I have really missed him since he started school. Of course I miss both my children when they are at school but a Friday is the only day I don't work, I relish the idea of having some time to myself to get on with jobs without little helping hands. Today though I did truly miss my little helper and my lack of pre-school children at home. I was able to borrow the beautiful Matryoshka dolls measuring cups that Josie got for her birthday though and return them to her room without her knowing!
Last year the rhubarb champagne I made was not as explosive or as nice as the year before. I couldn't work out why until I checked my blog post from last year for the recipe and it was not the one from my recipe book. So I thought I should share the more explosive recipe because it is delicious and has been known to make holes in people's ceilings.
I am very proud to say that out of the 5 ingredients needed to make rhubarb champagne, 80% were sourced from the UK. Up until last night, I didn't even realise that sugar beet was grown in England. Apparently Silver Spoon only use sugar from British Farmers which I think is brilliant. It was only the lemon that didn't come from this country but Spain isn't too far away so I guess the food miles are still less than they could be.
The recipe
3 1/2 cups of rhubarb (which is about 1lb)
3 1/2 cups of sugar (which is about 1lb bag)
11 tablespoons of cider vinegar
1 Lemon 20 cups of cold water
Chop up the rhubarb and the lemon, place in a large saucepan and add the sugar, vinegar and stir. Leave for no more than 48 hours, then stained and bottle. It should be ready in about 3 weeks. I recommend that you vent the gas daily, to prevent explosions!
This year however I was missing the small boy who usually does the stirring. It is the first time I have really missed him since he started school. Of course I miss both my children when they are at school but a Friday is the only day I don't work, I relish the idea of having some time to myself to get on with jobs without little helping hands. Today though I did truly miss my little helper and my lack of pre-school children at home. I was able to borrow the beautiful Matryoshka dolls measuring cups that Josie got for her birthday though and return them to her room without her knowing!
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you very much for taking the time to make a comment, it really brightens my day and everyone loves getting a little bit of feedback. If you are viewing my blog through Facebook on an iPad, then you need to open my blog in Safari to comment....such a pain but I can't work out any other way to do it