Hoopskirts

Continuing with my harvest of rhubarb, I tackled a new type of preserve Rhubarb Orange Marmalade.  Yes, you heard me right. The Challenge Historical Food Fortnighly Challege 12. In A Jam...or Jelly, or Pickle  (June 3 - June 16)  In a world before refrigeration, preserving food was an important task. For this challenge, make your favorite preserved food - bonus points if it’s seasonal! I have discovered how much I enjoy period jams and jellies made without pectin gelling agents.  They are so easy to make and so delicious!  Strawberries would be the logical seasonal fruit in early June in northern Illinois, but I still have a surplus of the last strawberry jam I made.  Since my rhubarb was still hardy, I thought I should take advantage of its abundance.  And, I have loved rhubarb since my childhood. The Recipe Rhubarb is not the normal stuff of jams and jellies, modern or period.  As I researched, I did start finding recipes for a c...

Rhubarb is full and lush in my garden, and the reenacting season is starting here in the North, so it's time to harvest some and bake a rhubarb pie! And my need for a pie ties in nicely with Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #11: Picnic Foods I have fallen behind on the challenges, but with every intent to catch back up, I thought I would get a head start on this challenge. The Challenge Picnic Foods  (May 20 - June 2)  Some foods are just meant to be eaten in the outdoors! Concoct a dish that is documented for al fresco dining, or foods that might particularly lend themselves to eating at a picnic. Bonus points for putting it to the test! A pie might not seem like the logical thing to bring to a picnic, used as we are to paper plates, sandwiches, and disposable ease.  But picnics in the antebellum period were often far more elaborate.   "The Pic-Nic" by Thomas Cole, 1846, in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  My photograph of work in the museum ...