Rhubarb Cake…

…along with substantial garden prep.

Copious amounts of rhubarb, and a very old-time recipe from Manitoulin. The cake looks good, and smells good. Let’s hope it tastes good. Recipe, subject to modification, below.
Otherwise, we turned 5 rows of soil in the garden, put down landscape fabric, and cut slits for beets. This summer is dedicated to weed control—after last summer’s weed fiasco which caused a complete crop failure. Tomatoes too, but my home-started seedlings may be too wimpy to pant in the time remaining.

Rhubarb Cake 

Cake Batter
••
1 stick butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups rhubarb, finely chopped

Topping
••
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup brown sugar

Procedure
•••
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.
In another bowl, sift together 2 cups flour, soda, and powder. 
Add sifted ingredients alternately with buttermilk to creamed mixture.
Toss rhubarb with I tablespoon flour, and stir into batter. 
Spoon batter into buttered 9 × 13 inch pan, and smooth the surface.
Blend together cinnamon, etc. and brown sugar; sprinkle evenly over batter.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 minutes.

Perfect For Planting

Sunny, warmer, and when working in the sun, almost hot.

Photos by Sue

Lucy helped?

Three little hazelnuts in our front yard, and in Vi and Anna’s—bald cypress, pussy willow, speckled alder, and swamp white oak. If even some survive, our yards will be more interesting and beneficial.

Turn, Turn, Turn…

…the compost.

Bin three over the side—about a good wheelbarrow full—to be used for various purposes. Bin two over into bin three. Tomorrow, bin one (this year’s detritus) over into bin two. And then we start over with bin one. Quite an astonishing amount of material goes into bin one. And what comes out of bin three is sweet, fluffy black, and useful.

Still very windy, and when the sun occulted by cloud, quite chilly.

Prepping and Planting

Prepping for tomorrow’s big Arb event—Welcome Center dedication and Schools Field Trip—and trying to remember what, among the infinite details, I forgot to get ready.

Pussy willow

Serviceberry

Also planted a a few native trees/shrubs including serviceberry, aronia, pussy willow, false indigo, and hemlock. When it comes to native plants, as a recent convert, I do have to practice what I preach.

Sold Out (almost)

A few bladdernuts left (good tree, bad name), and a smattering of a few other species. Business slow today, but, overall, we made a profit and have some nice things to plant in the Arb. Did I mention that it was cold, gray, and damp this morning, with an emphasis on the cold?

Official photos not yet ready for publication.

Almost Two Hundred…

…trees sorted by species, color-code tagged, and ready for sale. We were accidentally shorted pawpaw and witch hazel, but the nursery will drop ship all that we sell.

Last year we had 150 offerings and sold out. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Tomorrow’s forecast is cloudy and very cool. But nothing like last year when icy rain attacked us sideways.

Here’s what we have to offer: Tree Sale But not the ironwood—this year’s crop experienced a bad winter and did not survive.

Possibility Place

Brutal drive. Towed a heavy trailer down to the far south side of Chicago (almost to Indiana) to pick up 200 trees from Possibility Place, a top-of-the-line nursery dealing only in native midwest species. Very windy with tornado watches all the way. Found tulips in bloom on return home. Tree sale Saturday and Sunday.

And from Manitoulin friend Therese, a view of today from a different locale: