Welcome to our second Seasonal Recipe Round-Up! This time we’re featuring rhubarb (and next time is asparagus — see schedule below). I’m sharing my tips and two recipes, and you can participate by sharing your own tips and/or recipes in the linky or in the comments.

Keep reading for details on how to get a free eCourse thank you video by participating!

What is Rhubarb?

Rhubarb is a perennial plant with crisp, celery-like stalks and large triangular-shaped leaves. The leaves are toxic, but the stalks may be eaten or used medicinally. It is mostly water and does not boast high nutrients — except for Vitamin C and calcium.

How to Use Rhubarb

Being so tart, rhubarb stalks are usually stewed and sweetened and often combined with other fruits to make jams, pies, cobblers, pickles, relishes, and chutneys.  In my book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Fermenting Foods, you’ll see a rhubarb soda as well as a rhubarb chutney. Also, Shannon from Nourishing Days created a delicious-looking lacto-fermented rhubarb chutney — I’ve wanted to try it since I saw it last year.

I take a knife and gently peel off of the outer, stringy layer before using it in dishes. But you don’t have to do that. It can be stewed in big chunks or in small dices. Just a few minutes of stewing and it will fall apart easily.

Do not eat rhubarb leaves! They contain high, poisonous levels of oxalates. More information is here.

How to Store Rhubarb

Cut off leaves and trim stalk ends. Wash the stalks and pat dry. Cut into your preferred size pieces for storage. Store in airtight containers in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Freeze for longer term.

Two Rhubarb Recipes

In today’s Seasonal Recipe Round-Up, I’m sharing two GAPS-friendly, honey-sweetened, nourishing recipes to help you use up your abundant rhubarb — a tart rhubarb jam and moist rhubarb-walnut muffins.

Click here to view these recipes: Rhubarb Jam and Rhubarb-Walnut Muffins.

Now, it is your turn to share! See below for details on how I might feature your recipe/tips and how those featured get to choose a free eCourse thank you video.

Share Your Rhubarb Recipes and Tips!

Use the linky box below (or post in the comments) to share your recipes and tips. Use old or new posts and as many as you’d like. The linky will not close, so you can come back later with your recipes if our featured ingredients is not in season for you yet. I look forward to seeing what you’ll add!

Here’s the fun part! Next Friday, I will feature a select group of the recipes and/or tips shared in this link-up. Everyone featured (whether blogger OR commenter) will get to choose a free eCourse thank you video!

Seasonal Recipe Round-Up Schedule: April through June

• Friday, April 27, 2012 — Chard
• Friday, May 11, 2012 — Spinach
• Friday, May 25, 2012 — Rhubarb
• Friday, June 8, 2012 — Asparagus
• Friday, June 22, 2012 — Strawberries

All seasonal recipe round-ups are (and will be) listed on the Recipes page.

Check back next week to see if your recipe or tips are featured! Then come back on Friday, June 8 for our asparagus link-up in the Seasonal Recipe Round-Up.

This post is shared with Simple Lives Thursday.

What to do with rhubarb? Abundant and beautiful, many (including me) pass up using it year to year because we don’t know what to do with it. Here are two GAPS-friendly, honey-sweetened, nourishing recipes to help you use it up – a tart rhubarb jam and moist rhubarb-walnut muffins.

Rhubarb Refrigerator Jam

Tart and refreshing, you’ll pucker up and smile while eating this jam!

• 3 generous cups diced, peeled rhubarb stalks (peeled)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin* calcium water mixture (omit for GAPS)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin* (omit for GAPS)

Makes 1 pint. Put water and rhubarb in a saucepan. Bring water to a boil, cover pot, and let steam for about 5 minutes, or until rhubarb falls apart. Turn off heat. Add calcium water to rhubarb and mix. In a separate bowl or cup, mix together honey and pectin. Turn on heat again. Add honey mixture to rhubarb and mix in well while coming to a boil. When it boils, remove from heat. Pour into a clean pint size jar. Cover and refrigerate jar. Will set up in refrigerator. Can be frozen as well. This recipe can be scaled up easily.

For GAPS: Omit pectin and simmer cooked rhubarb with honey for a minute or two. It will thicken up when chilled, though not as thick as with pectin.

*Pomona’s Pectin is a wonderful, natural pectin that doesn’t depend on having a certain amount of sugar or even a certain type of sugar for setting up. You can use no sugar, low sugar, or natural sweeteners such as honey or stevia! It is versatile and easy to use. Click here for Pomona’s free PDF of recipes and instructions — very handy, easy to read, and a breeze to implement!

Rhubarb-Walnut Almond Flour Muffins

We’re on the GAPS diet right now. Being able to make muffins out of blanched almond flour is saving us from craving things we shouldn’t be eating. We really love them. I make a few variations, and they always turn out moist and cakey inside, and crispy crunchy on the outside. My latest variation, this rhubarb-walnut, carries only a hint of rhubarb (in case you’re afraid someone won’t like them). Actually, the rhubarb is quite nondescript, and could be increased if you desire. If you omit the baking soda, they won’t rise as much and be a bit more dense, but they’re still really, really good.

• 1 cup rhubarb stalks, peeled and diced
• 1 tablespoon water
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil or ghee
• 3-1/2 cups blanched almond flour
• 1/2 cup chopped crispy walnuts (optional, how to make here)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (omit for GAPS)

Yields 12 muffins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Steam rhubarb in water until it falls apart. Set aside to cool. Blend together eggs, honey, salt, cinnamon, vanilla, butter or oil, and almond flour. Mix in rhubarb and walnuts. Add baking soda (it will probably foam up due to reacting with the acid in the rhubarb). Scoop by 1/4 cup full into paper-lined muffin tins. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Use bottom rack of oven, as almond flour browns quickly when too close to the top of oven. Serve with butter or jam. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. These freeze well.

This post is shared in today’s Seasonal Recipe Round-Up featuring rhubarb and also with Pennywise Platter Thursday and Fight Back Friday.

We have noticed that quite a few blogs are not linking back to one of the Simple Lives Thursday host blogs (see guideline #2, below). If this is you, please realize that this prevents us from choosing you as a featured blog. Thank you for linking back to us!

The Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop

Welcome to Simple Lives Thursday, a blog hop dedicated to simple living. “Consume less, produce more. ” So many topics fit: Gardening, raising animals, cooking from scratch, real food, natural cleaners, sewing, recycling, thrifting, a mindset of simplicity, saving a buck…

This blog hop is hosted by (for the time being, due to hosts taking breaks):

• Alicia @ Culinary Bliss
• Diana @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
• And me!

Featured Posts from Last Week’s Submissions

We really enjoy reading your posts each week! Featured post bloggers, please grab the badge above and display it on your site! Link it to one of the host blogs’ posts for the specific week that you were featured.

Here are our picks from last week’s submissions. Thanks to all who participated — it is always hard to choose!

1. Garlic Mustard Salad with Wild Leek and Pea Shoot Hummus Dressing by The Intentional Minimalist. If you ever need beautiful recipes for seasonal vegetables, look no further than The Intentional Minimalist.

2. Live Seasonally to Live Simply by Little House in the Suburbs. Great advice and guidelines on how to homestead seasonally to truly live a simple life.

3. Foraging Blossom Jelly from mossgrownstone. From violets to apple blossoms, this author shares great ideas for making floral jelly.

What will you share this week? We all look forward to your submissions!

If reading this via RSS, visit this post to see the list of linked blogs.

We’re heading down home… to your farms! Urban, suburban, or rural — whatever you’re growing and doing, we want to see it.

Welcome to the Down Home Farm Tours series. To see all the farms and homesteads featured in this series, click here.

Welcome, Bent Nail Farm!

Today, Andi S., blogger at Declared Unto Him, shares her urban farm in Northern Wyoming: The Bent Nail Farm. In a moment you’ll learn the cute story behind the name. Below you’ll see Andi’s answers to our farm tour questions, and also a lovely photo tour of her urban property. Be sure to visit her blog and say hi!

What is your name and the names of your family members?
We are a family of three. I am the mom, Andi.

Where is your farm?
Northern Wyoming.

How long have you been farming/homesteading?
I have been farming and homesteading on and off my whole life. I was raised on a farm by a whole family of farmers on my mother’s side.

What is the name of your farm?
The Bent Nail Chicken Farm. I have a sign over our chicken coop that says “The Bent Nail Chicken Farm” — because every nail in our coop was recycled and at some point, bent …. but FREE is for ME!

Share a brief description of your farm/homestead.
A little piece of something bigger… but officially we are residing in a rental house with a fairly small lawn, which is slowly being turned into more growing space, as our landlord blesses. Our ‘living’ yard is home to five laying hens, a black lab named Gaelyn, a clothes line, raspberry bushes, grapevines, strawberry plants and various herbs, plus a vegetable garden. The most recent addition to our ecosystem are six additional raised garden beds, giving our family over three hundred square feet of growing space this year. Oh, and we also have a small worm bin, but we still learning on that one.

Any future plans?
Our plan for right now is to continue on here until Abba moves us, working to pay off dept, and increase our knowledge and understanding of heirloom gardening and preserving food. We want to be an inspiration to others, showing others that you can grow much in little spaces!

Let’s Tour The Bent Nail Chicken Farm!

(Wardeh: In the captions below, you’re hearing from Andi, as she tells you what is in each picture.)

Our gardens in summer and winter…

Our chickens that reside in the coop… made from bent nails.

Our backyard is a little piece of something bigger. We just added six additional raised garden beds this year, giving us 300 square feet of gardening space. Slowly we are converting the lawn to food production.

(Back to Wardeh) Andi, thank you for sharing your urban farm with us! We hope you enjoy your free thank you video, our gift to you. Plus, feel free to display the following graphic on your site. (Right-click and save to your computer, then upload to your site and link to this farm tour post.)

Thank you for sharing your urban farm with us, Andi. Please give Andi’s family a warm welcome in the comments.

Thank you to all who contributed to last week’s seasonal recipe round-up featuring spinach. I selected three recipes to feature, and below I’ll tell you why.

Remember, you can continue to add your spinach recipes to last week’s round-up. And join us next Friday, the 25th, for a round-up featuring rhubarb.

Featured Spinach Recipes

Featured post bloggers, please grab the badge above and display it on your site! Link it to this post or last week’s round up. See below for how to get your free thank you video for being featured.

Here are the spinach recipes I chose to feature. As you look through these and the others in the round-up, you’ll see that almost none of them call for steaming the spinach before using in the dish, as we discussed one should do to reduce oxalic acid.

I really think this is okay. Maybe not ideal, but not detrimental if done occasionally. The first two recipes could easily call for pre-steamed spinach, in my opinion. The final recipe could, too, though it might suffer in texture. In any case, enjoy browsing and give these bloggers a pat on the back for their tasty contributions!

Chicken and Spinach Sausage from Debbie at Easy Natural Food. Debbie makes her own breakfast sausage so she knows exactly what goes into it. (Have you seen the ingredients list on most packaged sausages?) These little beauties look terrific. Since we like to make our own sausages, too, and we’re growing a bunch of spinach, I’m saving this recipe to my Evernote for later. Thanks, Debbie!

Spanakopitta with Eggs from Madeleine at NZ Eco Chic. Madeleine loves spanakopitta and she adapted a recipe to create her own featuring spinach. She says it freezes very well, though it doesn’t last that long. It calls for three sheets of phyllo, and to be honest, I’ve never run across a whole-grain substitution for this. Does anyone have any suggestions? With only three sheets, and it being white flour which lacks phytic acid, it probably isn’t a big deal to just leave it be. Unless you’re allergic or on GAPS, of course.

Spinach and Kale Rabe Baked Eggs from Kristin at The Intentional Minimalist. Gorgeous, isn’t it? Using not only spinach but other seasonal vegetables as well (kale, chives, shallots, and eggs), serving this dish would bring joy to any table. Mmm…

Go check out the rest of the seasonal recipe round-up because many recipes look temptingly good!

Free Thank You Video

Featured bloggers (Debbie, Madeleine, and Kristin) please use the contact page to send me a message telling me which thank you video you’d like.

Seasonal Recipe Round-Up Schedule: April through June

Here’s our round-up schedule again, so you know what’s up ahead.

• Friday, April 27, 2012 — Chard
• Friday, May 11, 2012 — Spinach
• Friday, May 25, 2012 — Rhubarb
• Friday, June 8, 2012 — Asparagus
• Friday, June 22, 2012 — Strawberries

All seasonal recipe round-ups are (and will be) listed on the Recipes page.

Have a blessed weekend, everyone!

P.S. Just a reminder: don’t forget you can get 10% off your orders at MadeOn Hard Lotion through May 31, 2012 by using coupon code gnowmay12. Click here to browse or buy.

We have noticed that quite a few blogs are not linking back to one of the Simple Lives Thursday host blogs (see guideline #2, below). If this is you, please realize that this prevents us from choosing you as a featured blog. Thank you for linking back to us!

The Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop

Welcome to Simple Lives Thursday, a blog hop dedicated to simple living. “Consume less, produce more. ” So many topics fit: Gardening, raising animals, cooking from scratch, real food, natural cleaners, sewing, recycling, thrifting, a mindset of simplicity, saving a buck…

This blog hop is hosted by (for the time being, due to hosts taking breaks):

• Alicia @ Culinary Bliss
• Diana @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
• And me!

Featured Posts from Last Week’s Submissions

We really enjoy reading your posts each week! Featured post bloggers, please grab the badge above and display it on your site! Link it to one of the host blogs’ posts for the specific week that you were featured.

Here are our picks from last week’s submissions. Thanks to all who participated — it is always hard to choose!

1. Pros and Cons of a Plant Sale by Pumpkin, Pie, Painter. “My husband asked me this the other day after the plant sale. When so much work and time goes into something, you have to take a look at it and weigh the pros and cons of the amount of reward earned against the amount of effort released.” We enjoyed the honest reflection and gorgeous photos in this post.

2. Ramps: Wild Leeks by Learning and Yearning. “Walking along a bubbling brook yesterday, I stumbled upon a lovely patch of ramps. Also known as wild leeks, ramps are native to the Appalachian mountain region in North America. The perennial is found in deciduous forests in the spring. The bulb has a lovely onion-garlic taste and is delicious raw, or lightly sauteed.” This post includes a simple, delicious recipe!

3. Foraging Does Not Equal Free Food from The Local Cook. “As we were philosophizing among the cleavers, vinca, and garlic mustard, I realized how much my views on foraging have changed over the past year. I used to think that foraging was all about free food.” A surprising reflection on the ethics of foraging.

What will you share this week? We all look forward to your submissions!

If reading this via RSS, visit this post to see the list of linked blogs.

We’re heading down home… to your farms! Urban, suburban, or rural — whatever you’re growing and doing, we want to see it.

Welcome to the Down Home Farm Tours series. To see all the farms and homesteads featured in this series, click here.

Welcome, Serenity Gulch Farm!

Today’s featured farm is Serenity Gulch Farm run by Sherri and Keith Cripe (plus their children Jamie and Katie). They’ve been homesteading off and on for six years in Indiana. Below you’ll see Sherri’s answers to our farm tour questions, and also a lovely photo tour of their property. Be sure to visit their blog for videos and updates.

Where is your farm?
Thirty minutes northeast of Indianapolis, Indiana.

How long have you been farming/homesteading?
Off and on for six years.

Share a brief description of your farm/homestead.
We live on 14 acres. It’s mostly wooded with some open pasture and two small ponds. There is one small barn and a smaller lean-to shed.

What are you raising, growing, and doing?
We raise pastured pork, pastured poultry and eggs,honeybees, a big garden for our family, and a medicinal herb garden. We are working on getting our property certified as a herbal botanical sanctuary.

How did you get into farming/homesteading?
I (Sherri) grew up on a family farm in Michigan.

Any future plans?
Expanding the medicinal herb garden, offering classes on herbalism, canning, and other homesteading topics.

We’d love to hear a funny story!
Last week I was trying to lift a 50-lb bag of pig feed into a trash can. We store the feed in metal trash cans so the raccoons can’t get into it. I tripped and fell backwards on top of a plastic bucket, with the sack of feed on top of me. I had a bucket-shaped bruise on my backside for a week! (Wardeh: ouch!)

What about a sad story?
The first year I had chickens I raised them from day-old chicks. When they were 6 months old they were finally old enough to start laying eggs. One night a raccoon broke into the chicken coop and killed all of them. (Wardeh: that is awful!)

Is there anything else you’d like to share?
We have two children. Jamie is 6 and Katie is 3. I involve them in the farm chores as much as possible. Jamie loves to help me in the garden and already is a hard worker. As soon as they get home from school/daycare they are asking to go see the pigs and the chickens. Being a full-time working mom and a homesteader is a lot of work, but totally worth it.

Let’s Tour Serenity Gulch Farm!

(Wardeh: In the captions below, you’re hearing from Sherri, as she tells you what is in each picture.)

Front yard in winter. Our house sits almost 1/4 mile back from the road so we have a big front yard.

Front yard in spring. In the spring our entire yard is covered with tiny pink and white flowers. It’s my favorite time of year and I’m sad when we finally have to mow the grass. (Wardeh: I agree!)

Barn. We have a small one-stall barn on our property. Right now it’s just used for storage.

Barn and asparagus patch. This spring my son Jamie and I worked very hard to put in an asparagus patch. Unfortunately the barn cats thought all the turned up ground was the world’s most fantastic litterbox and ended up digging up most of the plants.

Main garden in early spring. We doubled the size of our family garden this year. The goal is grow as many of our vegetables as possible.

Katie checking out the new pigs. One of our new projects this year is raising pastured pork. We have three pigs that will be butchered in the fall. This is the first day we brought the piglets home.

Two pigs in pasture. Two of the three pigs enjoying munching on some greens in the pasture.

Dad and Jamie building a chicken coop. Another new project this year is raising chickens for meat. We built a chicken tractor so they could be raised outside.

Meat birds in the new coop. My Mother’s Day present was the new coop for the meat birds. Best gift ever!

(Back to Wardeh) Sherri and Keith, thank you for sharing your farm with us! We hope you enjoy your free thank you video, our gift to you. Plus, feel free to display the following graphic on your site. (Right-click and save to your computer, then upload to your site and link to this farm tour post.)

Isn’t the Cripe’s homestead beautiful? Do you have any questions for Sherri? Please give the Cripe family a warm welcome in the comments.

We’re heading down home… to your farms! Urban, suburban, or rural — whatever you’re growing and doing, we want to see it.

Click here to see all the farms and homesteads featured in this series. There’s always room for more — will it be you?

Homesteaders everywhere, send in pictures of your farms and homesteads. We want to see barns, goats, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, horses, eggs, kids (the human kind, too), gardens, vineyards, orchards, compost piles, berry patches… like I said, whatever you’ve got going!

How to be Featured in the Down Home Farm Tours

Are you a homesteader or farmer at any level? You don’t have to live in the country, you don’t have to be doing everything.

Being on the journey is the only qualification. We want to see what you’re doing, no matter how big or small.

If you’d like to be featured in a Down Home Farm Tours post, email me at farmtours at gnowfglins dot com. Send me a set of at least 5 to 6 photos (or more!) that are at least 900 pixels wide (height doesn’t matter). If your photos are on Flickr, just send me a link to the set.

Photos need to be good quality — not that your place has to look perfect, just that the photos should be well-lit and look good overall. I may not use all the pictures you send, but I will do my best.

Along with the pictures, include most or all of the following information in your email. Overall, keep it brief. Pictures should be the focus.

• What is your name and the names of your family members? (be as general as you’d like, if you wish to protect your privacy)
• Where do you live? (be as general as you’d like, if you wish to protect your privacy)
• What is your blog or website? (optional)
• What is your farm/homestead name? (if you have one)
• How long have you been farming/homesteading?
• Give a brief description of your farm/homestead. (city, suburbs, apartment, country, # of acres, land features, etc.)
• What are you raising, growing, and doing? (brief is fine)
• How did you get into farming/homesteading?
• Any future plans?
• Please share a funny story. (optional)
• What about a sad story? (optional)
• Is there anything else you’d like to share?
• Please include a 1 to 2 sentence caption for each picture you include.
• Which free thank you video would you like? This is our gift to you for being selected.

Please, please make sure you’re not revealing anything too private. The last thing we want to do is open you up to scrutiny or investigation by any unfriendly agencies. In other words, don’t tell us too much or take pictures of anything too sensitive. I know you understand.

I can’t promise I will feature every farm or homestead submitted, but again, I’ll do my best.

If You’re Selected…

We will share your farm/homestead pictures and stories in a dedicated blog post, plus you can add the featured graphic on your blog or website. And, we’ll give you a free thank you video of your choice!

So, hurry up, and start sending in your pictures and answers. Please share about our series with friends and family who may want to participate — use the sharing buttons at the top of this post. The Down Home Farm Tours will begin soon!

As I type this, food freedom supporters are gathering in Minnesota at the trial of farmer Alvin Schlangen, co-owner and manager of Freedom Farms Co-op. Watch the short video to hear his story.

“Alvin Schlangen, a peaceful Minnesota farmer and founder of Freedom Farms Co-op, connects people with the foods of their choice from local producers.  Over the past two years, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has illegally raided Alvin’s van, warehouse, and farm. The state has now brought 21 charges against Alvin related to food distribution; all are misdemeanor counts.  Four of the misdemeanors are in trial [this week].  If convicted, Alvin faces up to a year in jail and hefty fines… just for helping to connect consumers to the producers and foods of their choice.” –Raw Milk Food Freedom Riders

Alvin is being charged with crimes related to commercial food handling, though his co-op was a private buying club of consenting families and farms.

The Freedom Farms Co-op “venture serves to connect people with the food sources that meet their high standards for health by providing private access under lawful ownership of farm animals — for dairy food access: the member owners pay the Amish farm family for labor to milk the leased 100% grass-fed cows, manage the pasture, store the feed, etc.”

Do you see anything wrong what he and the other families were doing? Neither do I. Does it sound commercial? Not to me.

Interested in learning more about this event? Here is the event’s Facebook page, and here is the website page for the event.

What Can You Do?

The court has allocated three days for Alvin’s trial (beginning today, Monday, May 14, 2012). Sign up here to reserve a spot in the courtroom. You have the choice of committing to shifts throughout this week, Monday through Friday, mornings or afternoons.

Most of us are not in Minnesota, but that doesn’t mean our hands are tied! You can sign this petition (I am not sure if you must be from MN or not). You can donate here.

No matter what, please pray for Alvin and the other MN food freedom fighters. With God, all things are possible!

Welcome to our second Seasonal Recipe Round-Up! This time we’re featuring spinach (and next time is rhubarb — see schedule below). I’m sharing my tips and a favorite recipe, and you can participate by sharing your own tips and/or recipes in the linky or in the comments.

Keep reading for details on how to get a free eCourse thank you video by participating!

What is Spinach?

Spinach is a dark leafy green (like chard, kale, beet greens, collard greens, mustard greens). There are many varieties of spinach, categorized by leaf type. Savoy has curly, springy leaves. Then you’ve got flat-leaf spinach, and finally baby spinach. I find the flavor earthy and a little sweet. Definitely mild.

Though spinach can be grown year-round in the right conditions (not too hot, not too cold), its seasons are really March through May and September through October. Our property is cool (north-facing) and we’re just getting our gardens in — one of the first things I’ll plant will be spinach.

The Good and the Bad

Spinach one of the more nutritious vegetables, being high in vitamins and minerals, especially Vtamin C. However, it also (like other dark leafy greens) contains an anti-nutrient called oxalic acid. Oxalic acid binds with minerals in the digestive tract just as phytic acid does. To reduce oxalic acid, you should steam or ferment dark leafy greens. The recipe I’m sharing today is a fermented spinach recipe — spinach kraut. For more fermented green recipes, see my online class in lacto-fermentation or my book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Fermenting Foods.

How to Steam Spinach

Steam for just long enough to wilt the spinach (about a minute), but keep it brightly colored — this reduces oxalic acid yet preserves other nutrition. You can use a steamer basket, or you can put the spinach right in a few inches of simmering water in a pot.

Once steamed, drain the cooking water and discard it; it contains oxalic acid plus other impurities (like pesticides or nitrites if the produce was conventional). Then toss with additional ingredients or add to soups or dishes. For an example of this technique, see my Feta and Chard recipe.

You might run into recipes that call for an addition of greens to be cooked right along with everything else. This keeps the oxalic acid in the dish. Instead, steam the greens separately and add them to the dish after draining.

My Mom’s Lemon Spinach

This is my mom’s delicious and simple steamed spinach dish, and we made it just this week during her visit. We saute onions and garlic in butter while steaming the spinach separately. Then we toss them together, season with salt, and drizzle with lemon juice.

What About Green Smoothies?

It is best to add raw greens like spinach sparingly, rather than regularly. As an alternative, consider steaming the spinach, then adding it to the smoothie after it is cooled. If you have an abundance of spinach, steam it then freeze or dehydrate it to add to smoothies over time.

How to Store and Use Spinach

Store unwashed leaves in plastic bags in your refrigerator (preferably a crisper drawer) for 2 to 3 days, or up to a week. To use, wash and dry leaves. Trim off ends and any bad spots. Then use in recipes.

My Recipe: Spinach Kraut

In today’s Seasonal Recipe Round-Up, I’m sharing a fresh and lemon take on kraut — Spinach Kraut. We love to take this on picnics or serve alongside cold meats, cheese, crackers — or any kind of eggs!

Click here to see my recipe for Spinach Kraut.

Now, it is your turn to share! See below for details on how I might feature your recipe/tips and how those featured get to choose a free eCourse thank you video.

Share Your Spinach Recipes and Tips!

Use the linky box below (or post in the comments) to share your spinach recipes and tips. Use old or new posts and as many as you’d like. The linky will not close, so you can come back later with your recipes if spinach is not in season for you yet. I look forward to seeing what you’ll add!

Here’s the fun part! Next Friday, I will feature a select group of the recipes and/or tips shared in this link-up. Everyone featured (whether blogger OR commenter) will get to choose a free eCourse thank you video!

Seasonal Recipe Round-Up Schedule: April through June

• Friday, April 27, 2012 — Chard
• Friday, May 11, 2012 — Spinach
• Friday, May 25, 2012 — Rhubarb
• Friday, June 8, 2012 — Asparagus
• Friday, June 22, 2012 — Strawberries

All seasonal recipe round-ups are (and will be) listed on the Recipes page.

Check back next week to see if your recipe or tips are featured! Then come back on Friday, May 25 for our rhubarb link-up in the Seasonal Recipe Round-Up.

This post is shared with Simple Lives Thursday.