The biggest rhubarb crop is coming off and I am certainly noticing the difference in the cool wet spring and the fact that I did not feed my rhubarb plants last year. I will give them some extra feedings but I can’t add compost at this point to them.
None the less two huge massive bowls came in stuffed full and when all prepped out.. they filled both of the jumbo fridge smarts (these are big enough that they replace my crisper drawers in the fridge) plus one large regular fridge smarts.
So as the next years crops are all up and coming.. its time to get the last of the frozen fruits that had not been eaten in the fruit/veggie freezer out and used.
We are doing 5 batches of different kinds of Mixed Rhubarb fruits. Different fruits cook down at different rates.. but on average each batch makes 8 to 10 pints.
We have Rhubarb-Raspberry Blend.
We have Rhubarb-Strawberry Blend (the favorite for a lot of folks)
We have Rhubarb-Mixed fruit blend (using up all my mixed bag sizes of these.. Strawberry, Raspberry, Blueberry and Cherry
We have Rhubarb- Blue Berry Blend
We have Rhubarb-Strawberry-Blueberry- Ginger Blend.
What I love about the using the rhubarb as the filler is that it makes up 60 to 70 percent of the jar, its such a productive plant and it sure makes the smaller fruits go a lot further in the jars that’s for sure.
Felt good to put up 44 pints worth of fruit.. that’s 88 sides of fruit for hubby’s lunch.. 🙂 I need to put up for approx. 225 working days (thankfully he has his one teli-work day a week)
As I wanted to save just a touch more per jar.. we canned the fruit this year into the quart jars and hubby will transfer his daily portion to take to work.. this saves us the cost of the extra pints lids by half..
Other then the rhubarb-raspberry blend which takes more sugar, I was able to cut down on the sugar needed to preserve the fruits. Still enough of course to be safe but its lightly sweetened.
Only 137 days worth of work fruit put up to go! LOL
It feels great to be canning but at the same time, I am finding myself needing more breaks then normal and some of the lifting things are really pushing me.. so I am finding work arounds.. in some cases that means asking hubby to lift things up on the stove and remove it off the stove before or act work if he is not home..
in other cases it means me moving things in a smaller pot to empty the bigger pots till I can lift them.. but man I have to tell you.. I don’t think I ever realized just how much my bigger pots weight until I was hurt..
I am using my anti-slip and stress mats on the floor to give a helping hand there.. There will be at least another rhubarb harvest or two yet and I still need to split one and move both parts into the new garden area and make a detailed post on it. (I have not forgotten that, I just have not done it yet as the area they are being moved to is not prepared yet)
Still getting the hang of Instagram.. but if you want to see more photos or in this case a photo of each of the fruit blends.. feel free to pop on over and check them out..
Just another Day on the Farm 
Oh what a treat! We would eat it when I was younger, fresh from the garden, dipped in sugar. I could perhaps have rhubarb myself eventually, seeing that it comes back every year? Hmmm.
its a good investment that way and I know it grows well n your climate 🙂