This recipe is adapted from one of the best Martha Stewart recipes I’ve ever come across. I’ve got a few variations, but you can find a link to the original recipe at the end of this post.

Ingredients

For the Topping

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

For the Cake

• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (1 stick goes into batter, 1/2 stick goes under rhubarb in pan)
• 1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and cut diagonal about 1/2 inch thick
• 1 3/4 cups sugar (3/4 cup over rhubarb and 1 cup in cake batter)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest plus 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice (optional)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream

Directions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the topping: Stir together butter, flour, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until moist and crumbly. I like to throw this into my mini chopper if using cold butter.

Step 2

Make the cake: Grease a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). Place 4 tablespoons butter cut into pieces into the bottom of the pan. Toss rhubarb with 3/4 cup sugar and spread in bottom of pan over butter.

Step 3

Mix your cake batter: Whisk together dry ingredients which are flour, baking powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. In stand mixer, beat one stick butter and one cup sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in zest and juice. (I rarely have oranges in the house, so I add one tablespoon of lemon juice instead.) Beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl. Beat in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream, until smooth. Spread evenly over rhubarb. Crumble topping evenly over batter.

Step 4

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the batter in the center comes out clean and top springs back when touched, about 1 hour to 1 hour and fifteen minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake, and invert onto a large plate. It will be very juicy unless you have a leaky spring form pan like I do! Let cool completely if you like to serve with whipped cream.

Note: I have been making this recipe in a spring form pan the past few years to make it easier to get out. Sometimes I flip it over, but not all the time. We have made this over the campfire in the dutch oven many times. A show stopper for sure!

Link to original recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/344240/rhubarb-upside-down-cake

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of rhubarb
• 5 cups sugar
• 2 oranges
• 1 package liquid pectin

Weigh, wash and dice your rhubarb in small pieces. They will retain size in final product, so I like mine very small so the jam is less chunky. Do what you prefer.

Zest one orange. You want to end up with about 2 tablespoons of zest. You could also use a fine cheese grater if you don’t have a zester.

After zesting, squeeze the juice from both oranges. You should end up with close to 1 cup of juice.

Combine orange juice, diced rhubarb and zest in a large stock pot and simmer covered for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave this steam for another few minutes or until rhubarb is tender and becoming soft.

Add sugar. Bring to a boil while stirring.

When mixture is fully boiling add 1 package liquid pectin. Return to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

Skim foam if necessary.

Fill hot jars with hot jam leaving 1/4 inch head space.

Pack and process according to water bath canning instructions.

Processing time

1/2 pints or pints:

• Process for 10 minutes if you are below 6000 ft elevation.
• Process for 15 minutes if you are above 6000 ft elevation.

In the photo, my batch looks a very beautiful orange color. I chose the reddest stems and used the very bottom of each stem where it goes into the soil – this pinkest part. This is what made it more orange and less green. Color isn’t a deal breaker for me, but be aware that green rhubarb, while tasting delightful, will make a different colored finished jam.

Dried thyme and freezer corn drive the flavor in this chowder.

On the coldest days of winter, we turn to our hearty soup and stew recipes here at We Grow. In our attempt to expand our use of home grown ingredients, we’ve fallen across a really tasty cream based soup we would like to share with you. We dried a lot of thyme this summer, raised our own hogs, and packed away enough veggies for an apocalypse. Short of having a cow for cream, we can take credit for every ingredient here on our farm. We may be cheating a bit by not mentioning the ingredients within our freezer corn recipe, but I’ll let you check it out and decide if I am in violation of our local food obligation.

Ingredients

• 2 cups diced cooked ham
• 1 small onion coarsely chopped
• 2 cups freezer corn
• 1 large or 2 medium potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 cup ham soup stock (original recipe suggest using a can of cream of celery soup)
• 1 1/2 cups cream or milk

Combine all the ingredients, except broccoli and milk. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are nearly done. Add broccoli and cream for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking time. Chowder is ready when veggies are all tender, so plan cook times based on your varieties.

What we do to make this recipe “famous”:

• I like my onions well cooked, so I fry them in the dutch oven with the ham for a few minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.
• When it comes time to add the veggies, I throw the carrots in the boil before the potatoes to give them a head start. That way, both root veggies are done at the same time.
• Our recipe for freezer corn includes butter and sugar and this creates a unique, slightly sweet flavor when combined with the thyme that would not be achieved with a store bought frozen corn.
• Potatoes are more flavorful with their skins left on, so we scrub ’em down and leave the skins on whenever possible.