Rhubarb - Have You Tried It?
Though we have had a cold and rainy spring here in the northwest, one plant in our garden is absolutely thriving: my rhubarb.
Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that is incredibly easy to grow. When we moved to our house, we found a rhubarb plant growing in a corner of the yard. We moved it to a corner of the garden in the mid summer, thinking it may or may not survive being uprooted, and in August, it withered and seemingly died.
The following March, however, new sprouts came up and by mid April, the red stalks with huge green leaves were ready to be picked. I showed the kids how to eat rhubarb – we took little nibbles off the stalk and judged each others' sour faces. Then we brought some inside and dipped it in sugar and ate it, dubbing our treat an old fashioned pixie stick.
In my research, I found that the rhubarb plant has Asian origins, and didn’t come to America until the 1820s, when an English farmer introduced it in Maine. My husband and I are both from Maine, and remember eating a lot of rhubarb as kids. Tom’s mother used to make it into pies. My friend Kathy and I used to pick wild stalks and take them on picnics.
As you can see from the picture, our rhubarb is ready to be picked. In the past I’ve canned rhubarb to use later on in the fall and winter. I’ve also made rhubarb chutney and rhubarb jam. My grandfather loved Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. I just found a recipe for Rhubarb bread that I will try out and post if it is good. But hands down, the best thing to make with rhubarb is Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. With ice cream, it is my son Jem’s favorite dessert.
In an ideal world, our strawberries would be ready in tandem with the Rhubarb. But our strawberries are just starting to wake up and send out their runners, so I will have to buy California strawberries. If the weather cooperates, I’ll hopefully get a second cutting from my rhubarb in late June, and we’ll have a home garden dessert.
Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that is incredibly easy to grow. When we moved to our house, we found a rhubarb plant growing in a corner of the yard. We moved it to a corner of the garden in the mid summer, thinking it may or may not survive being uprooted, and in August, it withered and seemingly died.
The following March, however, new sprouts came up and by mid April, the red stalks with huge green leaves were ready to be picked. I showed the kids how to eat rhubarb – we took little nibbles off the stalk and judged each others' sour faces. Then we brought some inside and dipped it in sugar and ate it, dubbing our treat an old fashioned pixie stick.
In my research, I found that the rhubarb plant has Asian origins, and didn’t come to America until the 1820s, when an English farmer introduced it in Maine. My husband and I are both from Maine, and remember eating a lot of rhubarb as kids. Tom’s mother used to make it into pies. My friend Kathy and I used to pick wild stalks and take them on picnics.
As you can see from the picture, our rhubarb is ready to be picked. In the past I’ve canned rhubarb to use later on in the fall and winter. I’ve also made rhubarb chutney and rhubarb jam. My grandfather loved Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. I just found a recipe for Rhubarb bread that I will try out and post if it is good. But hands down, the best thing to make with rhubarb is Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. With ice cream, it is my son Jem’s favorite dessert.
In an ideal world, our strawberries would be ready in tandem with the Rhubarb. But our strawberries are just starting to wake up and send out their runners, so I will have to buy California strawberries. If the weather cooperates, I’ll hopefully get a second cutting from my rhubarb in late June, and we’ll have a home garden dessert.
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