Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Taking over the yard work has provided me with some wonderful opportunities to reflect on the time Ed and I spent here at the farm.  Son Eric reminded me yesterday that the majority of our life together, 11 of 14 years, had been lived on this beautiful land.  The memories are just wonderful. 

When I first married Ed in 2001 and moved here, we lived on five acres in a beautiful home but it never felt like home to me.  I always felt like a guest.  Ed endured my remodeling and redecorating but it never felt just right.  Ed had a path worn between the house and the pole barn after his retirement in 2002.  And everywhere I drove, I felt like I was driving north.  It became a laughing point. 

When we bought this farm, it instantly became "home".  My compass re-calculated and I no longer yearned to go north.  This place has wonderful views of growing crops and sits on a hill that always has a breeze.  The porches just call for you to sit for a few minutes and take in God's Creation. 

One of the young men who delivered seed corn on Friday, mentioned how often Ed would include a respect for Creation in his way of teaching good agriculture practices.  I was so touched by how that young man took that to heart in his own caretaking of the land. 

Last week, taking my mom back to NY after Ed's funeral, I could not wait to come back home, home to our farm. Ed always reminded me, "It is God's land and we are temporary caretakers."  In fact, he always joked about having something like that put on his headstone......

But, back to the opportunities to reflect....Sable laid down somewhere in the middle of the lawn where I was mowing and it was like watching a tennis match.  Her head went back and forth, back and forth for the two hours I mowed that section. 

She has a track packed down around the house.  Some might call it unsightly but it was the path she followed from door to door, always placing herself at the entrance nearest to wherever we were inside.  It was uncanny how she knew.  She spent hours on the front porch laying under the window nearest Ed's desk.  Her loyalty to him was unbelievable.  Her loyalty to me is becoming more evident.  We are in this together.

What has all this to do with Strawberry Rhubarb pie?  Well, some lucky daughters are going to get some pie today.  Ed bought me a rhubarb plant for Mother's Day a couple of years ago.  He loved pie.  Any kind of pie.  And I love Strawberry Rhubarb pie.  I think he was hinting.

I looked a couple of weeks ago at the bare spot where the rhubarb plant was supposed to be and decided that the harsh winter had gotten the plant.  Yesterday, while mowing, I saw a beautiful plant ready to harvest right where he planted it for me.  God's land, temporary caretaker. 

Be safe, be kind and be yourself.  LA