First rhubarb

[Lloyd Smale]

That bread sounds great mary!

[MaryB]

Good stuff, sweet/tart from the rhubarb, warm a slice an smother in butter, makes a great breakfast.

[Wayne Smith]

You'all making me hungry! I grew up in Maine with it, down here it don't like it's roots wet so no can do. Strawberry rhubarb sauce - jar upon jar of it in our basement as a kid.

[MaryB]

Rhubarb is the very first spring veg here an dis loaded with good stuff http://foodfacts.mercola.com/rhubarb.html almost like a spring tonic to clean out the winter crud that builds up from being indoors and over eating/being lazy!

[roysha]

Don't forget wine. It makes a very nice light wine with just a bit of tang depending on the yeast you use and how much sugar. We ferment it dry then back sweeten when we serve it. Nice thing about it is that it really doesn't require much in the way of aging. I prefer it very young and served cold.

[olyeller]

Hogtamer got it right. I guess it doesn't grow down here in the heat? I've heard folks talk about it for a long time, and the look in their eyes really has me intrigued. Some almost swoon when talking about it! One day, maybe I'll come across some, and if so, I'll certainly grab them and come here for recipes to make them into something hopefully great.

And as to the grits thing, I knew an old USAF Major who hated grits with a bloody blue passion. Seems when he was in boot camp, he plopped a big ol' helping of them into his breakfast one morning, thinking they were cream of wheat, and put a large dose of sugar in them. On the first bite, he sprayed the hapless recruit across from him with his mouthfull of grits! His DI lit into him like white on rice, and when he was told that he thought they were cream of wheat, the DI made him eat every last bit of them he could. This, I think, warped his mind with regard to grits, and he absolutely HATED the things thereafter.

Grits are CORN, and things that go good with corn, go good with grits. Butter and a little salt and maybe some pepper are all that's required for most. Sugar is a big no-no! Treating cream of wheat the same way we treat grits would likely not go over so well either, I think? One of the things I miss most that I don't eat any more is grits. They're right up there next to biscuits for me. If I never eat any more, though, I've certainly had my share! I guess I'll have to content myself with that ..... except maybe for one "dose" a year now???

I was born in West Texas and grew up in Central TX. Mom Raised in North Central TX.
She had rhubard as a child, and grew it here and made pies with it.
Guess maybe it's just not done in Deep South? But I always thought it was since Mom never went further North than Arkansas and both Southern Living and Cooking with Paula Deen have recipes fer it.

[MaryB]

If I have excess(being second year for these plants I doubt it) I have a recipe for rhubarb ale I want to try. Might make an interesting mead too...

Don't forget wine. It makes a very nice light wine with just a bit of tang depending on the yeast you use and how much sugar. We ferment it dry then back sweeten when we serve it. Nice thing about it is that it really doesn't require much in the way of aging. I prefer it very young and served cold.

[MaryB]

Rhubarb CAN be grown in hotter climates http://www.southernexposure.com/blog...arb-from-seed/ as an annual instead of a perennial like it is up here on the tundra!

[Jack Stanley]

Haven't had a good rhubarb pie since before my mother in law died

Jack

[Lloyd Smale]

Mary can you post that rhubarb bread recipe of yours?

[MaryB]

Basically this but I coat the rhubarb in cinnamon sugar for more flavor and sweetness. http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/rhubarb-bread Any banana bread recipe would work too, sub chopped rhubarb for the bananas. I usually skip the nuts because i never have them on hand.

[Lloyd Smale]

thanks mary. I'm going to give it a try in a few weeks when the plants get big enough.

[WRideout]

"I prefer crumbled up sausage"

Make that white sausage gravy and all the rest for me.

Biscuits and gravy is a food group.
Wayne

[Bullwolf]

Have baked 2 strawberry & rhubarb pies this year so far , and have even experimentally canned some rhubarb. I love the tart taste of rhubarb. Another nice bonus, is the deer seem to leave it alone for some reason.

I transplanted a single old rhubarb plant from my Great Grandmothers farm a few years back. It's been thriving on the Cali side. It's even multiplied a couple of times. I have 3 of them growing now in different locations.

The original (transplanted) rhubarb plant actually flowered this year, which was something I'd never seen before.

I'm glad I could keep it going, as it had some family history. And it's another nice thing to have growing in the garden.


50 year old rhubarb plant, that I transplanted back in 2011.






- Bullwolf

[Lloyd Smale]

do you leave the flowers? I was allways told to pull them out.

[MaryB]

I always pull the early flowers, makes the plant produce more stalks longer. Late flowers I let slide and try to harvest seed if I can.

[Bullwolf]

do you leave the flowers? I was allways told to pull them out.

I actually cut the first flower stalk off back in April, and another one came up.

So I left the second flower stalk. I've not harvested seed from rhubarb before.



-Bullwolf

[Spruce]

As a kid I liked the cooked rhubarb over cottage cheese with a spoonful of grape jelly mixed in to over come the tartness.