Finally! Local fruit besides apples! Well, what is rhubarb? Does it count as a fruit? With enough honey and sugar and strawberry added, it sure tastes like fruit. So I wanted to use rhubarb, honey, a tiny bit of sugar, tapioca starch to thicken, and to stir in strawberries at the end. But I couldn't find a recipe for rhubarb sauce with all of those ingredients (why are so many people hung up on pie?), so I got some basic ideas from talking to my mom; remembered what my friend, Juliane, told me about stirring in the strawberries at the end; looked online at Cat's Kitchen website (http://web.mac.com/catherinehaug/iWeb/CatsKitchen-Recipes/Rhubarb.html), and then did a little improvisation. Here's the final product. I'm halving the recipe, assuming that most people won't be starting with 5 lbs of rhubarb.
Rhubarb Sauce
Cut 2 1/2 lbs rhubarb stems into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices (after washing stalks and removing all leaf, which is poisonous). Put in pot and sprinkle with a little bit of sugar (or skip it and add more honey at the end) and just a little bit of water in the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 45 min. or an hour (until the pieces start to fall apart when you stir). Add about a cup of cut up strawberries (or raspberries). Stir in some tapioca flour/starch (or corn starch), a teaspoon or so. Next time I actually will try mixing it with a little bit of water first so I won't get clumps in it. Add about 1 generous cup of honey or however much sugar or honey you need to until it tastes really good and not like a vegetable. (Actually, if you're using sugar, you can add it right from the beginning. I mostly just used honey and added it at the end.) It's really good. Enjoy!
