Slow living on a rainy spring day,

with a side of rhubarb cobbler.

Nature photo of the day: wet and verdant views.

This is my first post here on Substack related to homesteading, and I am very excited to write about it - for I was quite literally born into it. Wherever we lived, homesteading and simple living has always been a constant presence in my life. Whether we lived in Hungary, Scotland, or, for the longest part of my life, here in Breb.

Rainy spring days like today lend themselves to reminiscing about the past, pondering the present, planning the future, and, of course, making rhubarb crumble from local ingredients! But we’ll get to that in a minute…

It has drizzled and rained all day today, and is supposed to do so for a few more days. The grass and the leaves on the trees are bright green and everything is quite soaked. Amazing weather for crafting gifts for friends, reading, listening to audiobooks and peeking out of the window at the dark skies. But the weather didn’t stop us from spending at least a little time outdoors. Make sure you too, whatever the weather, get outside for at least 20 minutes today.

In most places it is rhubarb season - either in full swing, or just beginning.

We have attempted to grow rhubarb two times already in the garden, and either the soil isn’t right, or something eats it during the winter, it simply doesn’t want to grow here. But it’s a vegetable we love (did you know it’s a member of the buckwheat family?), so sometimes we resort to the next best option, buying from the market.

We eat as many local ingredients as possible, foraging and using what grows in our very own backyard. Also, we preserve as much as we can during the summer, and have been doing so ever since we settled down in this house back in 2017. We still have a few jars of jam that are perfectly tasty and fine for eating from 2019 - in total we have over 100 jars of jam and compote in our pantry. But there is plenty of space for more!

The rhubarb jam we are using today is four years old, we canned it way back in 2021. On its own means that it doesn’t have sugar or any kind of sweetener in it, just plain rhubarb. Did you know you can can like that?!