The Rural Voice, 1996-06, Page 46purebred pie: they arc all adulterated
with rhubarb.
I have the strange feeling that
history is repeating itself. "A
generation goes and a generation
comes, but the earth (and its
rhubarb?) remains forever."
On the other hand, nobody, but
nobody, can resist a fresh rhubarb pie
first thing in spring, especially when
Grandma is around to make it. She
heaps up the rhubarb in the pie shell,
snows it under with sugar, sprinkles
the top crust with cinnamon and
slides it into the oven.
Before long the pie is turning a
golden brown and the rhubarb
juice is bubbling up through
the little slits in the top crust. Just
when everyone's taste buds are on the
edge of anticipation, the smoke
detector goes off.
What started as a few harmless
bubbles has erupted into a full-
fledged volcano, with rhubarb lava
flowing up and over the edges of the
pie and dribbling down onto the hot
oven floor. As the sugary syrup
hardens into pools of black carbon,
billows of smoke pour forth from the
oven. Gasping for air, the family
runs to open windows and doors, and
the noise of our shrieking smoke
detector can be heard all the way to
the foot of the street. Perceiving the
"sound of the trumpet and the
mountain smoking," puzzled
neighbours stand and watch at a
distance.
Even though Grandma turns down
the oven thermostat as low as she
dares, the pie periodically insists on
spewing forth its surplus juice, with
the smoke detector faithfully
broadcasting each new eruption like a
Geiger counter recording seismic
tremors.
At last the pie is baked, and
savoring that warm rhubarb filling
with its sugary crust smothered in
vanilla ice cream, the family
unanimously agrees that a second pie
would certainly be in order. Long
before that molten lava on the oven
floor has turned to volcanic rock, I
have already conceded that the
rhubarb patch will always be with us,
the one unchanging feature of a true
Canadian gardcn.0
Alma Barkman lives and writes in
Winnipeg.
111
A Taste
of
Country
Food
Fair
Got a food
product the
public should
know about?
Take part in A
Taste of C'rIl,rf-
July 20 in Blyth
Call Kean of -.+311
II
•
•
•Free food samples
-Recipes
•Seminars on running your
own food business
BOYD FARM
SUPPLY
• Bale Wagons
• Gates & Panels
• Head Gates & Chutes
• Bale Feeders
• Portable Loading Chutes
• Cattle Oilers & Rubs
• New & Used Farm Machinery
RR 6, Owen Sound
519-376-5880
map
Crop Consulting Service
Crop Scouting - Soil Sampling
Integrated Pest Management
Nitrogen Soil Testing
"MAXIMIZE YOUR CROP
PRODUCTION BOTTOM LINE"
Les Nichols
Formosa (519) 392-8037
Spider • Cluster Fly • Ant
Wasp • Flea
Bugs Find Us Hard to Resist
P.O. Box 218, Owen Sound, Ontario N4K 5P3
Tom & Karen Merner • Tel: (519) 371-9499 or 1-800-292-3379
414414( S.E.W. PIGGY TUB
- Draft Free environment!
disease resistant
- all plastic easy to clean
- spill proof feeders
- self-contained manure storage
- cost effective for starting newly weaned piglets!
can-co"THE COMPLETE HOG AND CATTLE
�Y�L rri CONFINEMENT AND FEEDING EQUIP. CENTRE"
R.R. #1 NEWTON, ONTARIO
a Oroeon d Sieves We�omy� (519) 595-8025
JUNE 1996 43