42 - Rhubarb

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. What do you do when life gives you rhubarb? Or in my case, a rhubarb plant that is an overachiever? That's easy! You grab the strawberries that came in with your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box and make yourself some homemade strawberry-rhubarb pie!


This week's mindful consumption involved more of the mindful aspect than the consumption as I set out to make one of my favorite pies totally from scratch. I don't like to buy convenience items, like pre-made crust or canned fruit. Pie is best when the ingredients are (more or less) freshly harvested from the garden.

A good pie takes time to prepare: slicing each strawberry, washing and chopping rhubarb stalks. You must pay attention to what you are doing, otherwise you may have an unintentional ingredient in your dessert. (That may be why they call it "finger food".) You must be aware of when your dough reaches the right consistency. And you must be patient as you wait for things to chill or blend flavors.

Of course, mindful patience doesn't necessarily mean standing around staring at the dough and fruit and waiting for it to be ready. I took that opportunity to do my Friday workout: j-ropes, wide angle stretches, and meditation. Yeah, I know the meditation wasn't on the list, but I figured why not. It's not like I had anything else to do but sit and wait!

The mindful creation continued with rolling out the dough and putting into the pie dish, then filling it with the fruit mixture, and finally letting inspiration take you as to how you want to top it. I went with a full pie top crust with "moon" cutouts for venting. Into the oven so it can bake, and another chance at mindful patience. I was hungry and it was a good time for my KFB dinner!

Although the timer went off, it's always good to check the pie itself for doneness. It's not a cookie-cutter world—everything and everyone is different. All pies are not the same. Some may need to cook longer or shorter. Some fillings may need more or less sugar. Some crusts may need extra butter or not. Each pie is just as different as people. We're not all the same—why should a pie?

This pie needed to stay in the oven a little bit longer. Once the crust was a nice golden brown, out it came to sit on the rack to cool. More mindful patience, although a bit of mindful excitement started coming into play. Just the thought of sweet fruit juices dancing upon the tastebuds.... Patience, young grasshopper!

Finally the time came when I could cut into it and have myself a respectable sliver of pie—not too big for that would be gluttonous, and not too small to leave one craving for more, but one that was just right to allow satisfaction and no desire for the rest of it.

But the best part about a pie—being able to share it with friends. A pie is far too big for one person to consume in a sitting, but just the right size for others to become part of the momentary mindful creation that you began all those many little nows ago.