First rhubarb

[MaryB]

I transplanted some rhubarb from the neighbors patch last year. It did well but I did not get to pick any(wanted the root ball to develop well). Just picked 3 big stalks and made some rhubarb sauce. Normally have it over ice cream but it was so tasty all on its own!

[Lloyd Smale]

Disadvantages to live way up north. Mines only a couple inches high right now. It will be a good while before any is ready to be picked. Use most of mine to make raspberry/rhubarb jam. Wife will make a couple pies too.

[Hickory]

Made a rhubarb pie and crisp so far.
My rhubarb has been ready to pick for a month.
I sale it from my place as a u-pick out of my garden.

http://www.rhubarb-central.com/plant-care.html

[Hogtamer]

You could slap southerners with a stalk of rhubarb and we wouldn't know what hit us! My executive chef a couple years ago was originally from northern Illinois and though rhubarbs were the grandest thing. Gave me a recipe for rhubarb pie and he thought it was great but nobody at the club would eat it. Had a big box left so I wound up adding about an equal amount of strawberries to it and called it strawberry/rhubarb pie and managed to use it up that way. Guess it's sort of like grits to you northerners!

[Boaz]

Hogtamer is right . I'm 65 years old and never seen rhubarb growing ...one of those mythical vegetables . But I'd be willing to try it .

[dale2242]

Rhubarb custard pie for those that think rhubarb is too sour.
Like me. Better than strawberry-rhubarb, in my opinion.
YUMMY...dale

[MaryB]

Went and got ice cream, made a rhubarb shake with 1/2 cup of the sauce... good stuff!

[farmerjim]

I had a 50 foot row of it at my place in upstate New York when I lived in Montreal. I loved rhubarb pie.
It's a shame that it will not grow down here in the heat. But then okra would not grow up there.

[Bulldogger]

Does it grow in Northern VA? I've been longing for some to remind me of childhood pies in N. Indiana.

How much room does it need? Not sure where I'd put it.

BDGR

[castalott]

Strawberry & Rhubarb pie...yummy! But I only like 2 kinds of pie....hot and cold...

[Blackwater]

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???

[arlon]

I haven't had GOOD rhubarb since I was a kid in Germany.. Haven't had anything that compares to pies we had over there. I live in the desert now, I think fresh, ripe on the plant rhubarb is just a thing of dreams now... Stuff they call rhubarb that sells in our local grocery store tastes like cardboard and probably comes from china.

[Boaz]

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???

Grits are accepted in Texas but hard to come by in an eating place . Defiantly more eaten in East Texas than the rest of the state . I like em myself but rarely eat breakfast .

[MaryB]

A small rhubarb patch can be 4x4' max and one plant... I have it in 3 spots in the yard, 2 alongside he observatory and one at the end of the garden I started from seed.

And I can grow okra in MN :p does fine!

And you can keep grits, yech!

[Lloyd Smale]

yankee here that likes grits. But the way I learned to eat them down south isn't to healthy. They would cook them up for breakfast and fry there bacon and poor the bacon grease over the grits or smother them in sausage gravy. I'm sure its not healthy but it tastes about as good as candy.

[JeffG]

A small rhubarb patch can be 4x4' max and one plant... I have it in 3 spots in the yard, 2 alongside he observatory and one at the end of the garden I started from seed.

And I can grow okra in MN :p does fine!

And you can keep grits, yech!

My wife is a S.D. native, across the border from you in Waubay on Hwy 12. Any time we go to her home, we bring back rhubarb for various recipes, sometimes rhubarb strawberry conserve, love it. Being a proper southern boy, I have successfully converted her into a grits kinda women and she loves them. Crumble up her bacon into the buttered grits and drop an over easy egg on top and she is in heaven. Same here but I prefer crumbled up sausage.

[farmerjim]

"I prefer crumbled up sausage"

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

[Lance Boyle]

I am in upstate NY and my rhubarb is ready for
its first spring cutting. I don't have a large patch but it's just me. I bake mostly strawberry rhubarb but will make the odd solo rhubarb pie. Both are good. I cut enough to freeze and make a pie for thanksgiving or Christmas. I could probably cut more but am restrained to let it develop. It's at least four years old and is probably fine. My side hill gets tiny wild strawberries but they're smaller than a pencil eraser so I don't bother with them except to pick and toss to the chickens for a treat.

[Davy Sprocket]

I moved out to my grandparents place. You can hardly imagine the rhubarb plants out there. Last year I canned 13 quarts of rhubarb sauce and it barely put a dent in the amount that's out there. I add quite a bot of honey to it. The honey seems to mellow out over the winter. I'm planning on spending the whole weekend canning. Hopefully I get double what I did last year.


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[MaryB]

I freeze a bunch to use for crisp, pies, rhubarb bread(think banana bread with rhubarb rolled in sugar then barely folded in).

[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. :D

[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/2015/02/growing-rhubarb-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.
http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/forum/cpg14x/albums/userpics/15195/Rhubarb-2011.JPG





- 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.