Around the last week of May, our Vermont garden starts coming to life. The asparagus patch has given us numerous pickings & so many lovely meals in the inn. New seeds were planted for beans, carrots,chard, peppers & all kinds of wild flowers. The strawberry bed is loaded with white flowers, a promise of those sweet tasting  berries that will play a big part in our Inn breakfasts & dessert time in the restaurant. But before berries, we always have a small showing of rhubarb. We planted it years ago & I usually forget its there due to poor weeding practices on my part. This past Saturday  I decided a strawberry rhubarb cobbler would make a nice ending to our dinner meal. So I was lucky enough to get 2 1/2  cups the perfect amount for our chosen dessert.

I always think of my grandmother when I smell rhubarb cooking. She would make the best rhubarb pies & the town folks knew it too. During our summers in Vermont my cousins & I would load her pies into a wagon & would visit neighbors pulling that red wagon until the pies were gone & an envelope was full of dollar bills. A sweet memory indeed.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

1 cup plus 1 Tbs. all purpose flour

2 Tbs. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup cold unsalted butter

1/2 cup of 1/2 & 1/2

2 1/2 cups rhubarb

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbs. quick tapioca

2 Tsp. lemon juice

2 1/2 cups of strawberries, halved

2 Tbs. kirsch

Sift flour, 2 Tbs. sugar, Baking powder & salt in a large bowl.Cut in butter until crumbly. Make a well in the center of mixture & pour in the 1/2 & 1/2 . stir until the dough is moistened & the dough cleans the side of the bowl.

Preheat oven to 425

Combine rhubarb, sugar,tapioca & lemon in a medium saucepan. Heat until boiling, then reduce heat & simmer stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat & add strawberries & kirsch. Pour into a 6 quart baking dish. Gently spread dough over the hot filling. Place on baking sheet & bake 25 ~ 30 minutes.

Cool & serve with a scoop of ice cream. I made a homemade batch of vanilla & half way through the churning process I added 4 oz. of frozen lemonade. It was yummy a top of the cobbler!