Rhubarb Season!

I don't much like rhubarb except fresh with a little sugar on it. Don't like the pies, with or without strawberries. But the neighbors loved it and it grew year after year like a weed, so....But, yeah, if it's started to flower you've waited too long.

Jeebus on a stick, that's a lot of rhubarb.

TedTheewen said:

I've been babying this patch for a couple of years and this year it's really paying off. I could pull out another 6 lbs this weekend one would hardly notice.

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I got 11 pounds already and a month yet to go!

=)


*and don't ask about the asparagus, I'm sick of it already*

Oh sure, that's what you think and the ads look so nice and the root stalks are cheap really but they don't tell you that if you build nice raised beds and then compost and weed that suddenly in the spring the two dozen little plants will start jamming spears up outta the ground at such an alarming rate that your eating it with breakfast and having asparagus sammiches and chewing a half pound for of it for diner and your searching cookbooks and the internet to find new and different ways to serve asparagus and still the damn things jam another 30 spears into the air the next morning and your still busy eating leftover asparagus jiggling jello molds and cold flambeau because...

TedTheewen said:

Last weekend I attempted to make some rhubarb marmalade. In this attempt, I believe my heart was in it, but not my brain.

First, let me say I thought I was making due with what I had. Lemons were sold out in 3 stores, so I used limes. This was mistake #1 and the primary reason why the marmalade attempt tastes like lime pith.

Second, once again I had setting issues. Had I not mucked it up with the limes, I'm sure it would have made awesome ice cream topping and shake mix.

Thirdly, I think I need to actually follow a recipe and stop winging it. A real one, like the one Kelly posted, or something posted online. No more "um, this should work."

If I can afford to try again this weekend, I shall.

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I hope you didn't throw it out Ted. That marmalade sounds like it would make a terrific drink - add some ginger ale perhaps or the base for an alcoholic bevvy - perhaps some gin or maybe grand marnier. It would be fun to test a few I think!

Oh, no way would I throw out that failed rhubarb marmalade, either. There's always a way to make it work. Having with ginger ale sounds terrific.

TedTheewen said:

Right now Dump Cakes are the trendy thing on Pinterest. There are some good ones out there, too.

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I keep seeing those ads from that one older woman who is trying to hawk her books on dump cooking (baking, and meals). None of it looks appetizing, but more importantly, none of it looks HEALTHY. I'm trying my best to not eat any packaged or pre-prepared foods.

I'm so jealous of y'all with your excess rhubarb. I can grow stuff, really. I've got 400 onion plants, 200-500 garlic heads, something like 40 pepper plants, a dozen tomatoes, plus asparagus and beans and swiss chard and cucumbers and both winter and summer squash and herbs and strawberries and I don't know what-all else.

But my rhubarb plants are pitiful. Puny. And about half the roots I plant die off. I've even got three different varieties, and the stems are less than 1/2" across and maybe 4-6" long. I do NOT understand. When I was a kid, we had rhubarb plants that were taller than I am. (Okay, I'm not very tall, and was even less so then, but still.)

I had to BUY rhubarb today (for $2.69 a pound, argh!), because I absolutely needed to make some blubarb jam (blueberries and rhubarb). It hurts my cheap, farmer's heart to have to do that.

GinJones said:

But my rhubarb plants are pitiful. Puny. And about half the roots I plant die off. I've even got three different varieties, and the stems are less than 1/2" across and maybe 4-6" long. I do NOT understand. When I was a kid, we had rhubarb plants that were taller than I am. (Okay, I'm not very tall, and was even less so then, but still.).

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The dirty little secret to growing successful rhubarb from wee tiny starters...

manure.

Mulch generously* with a heavy layer of straw and cow manure.

*means pack them little suckers in it.

Bought rhubarb at the farmer's market today.

Then I saw this thread. Tomorrow I'm trying this one.

kikazaru said:

Martha Stewart has a fab recipe for rhubarb raspberry crisp, the addition of orange rind is inspired. If you are looking for a great dessert that feeds a crowd, this is it.
http://www.marthastewart.com/316493/rhubarb-raspberry-crisp

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According to everything I was taught...

This week is my last chance to pick rhubarb for the year. =(

Ted, I swear I'm going to have to get a mailing address and then send you a half pint: just enough to tease you through until spring.

KellyAssauer said:

The dirty little secret to growing successful rhubarb from wee tiny starters...

manure.

Mulch generously* with a heavy layer of straw and cow manure.

*means pack them little suckers in it.

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Growing up, a friend's father had a rhubard garden that took up a.good portion of his backyard. For fertilizer he would dump is ashtrays, butts and all, on the garden. And he was a chain smoker. So there was this garden of green leaves with all these cigarette butts lying around it, like some giant organic ashtray.

Needless to say, that's also where my aversion to rhubarb comes from.