Cottage and Yard

What other vegetable can you eat over ice cream or pancakes?
Yes, technically rhubarb is classified as a vegetable but it’s always been a fruit to me. It’s a shame that rhubarb remains so unknown to so many since it is one of the easiest plants to grow and will, as a perennial, provide year after year of delicious stalks with very little care.

While the stalks are tart and tasty and a treat to eat please do not eat the leaves they are toxic.

If you want to grow your own simply prepare a bed with lots of organic matter (compost and/or manure) where it can grow undisturbed. The plants will produce better bigger stalks more consistently if you dig up and divide the root clumps every 4 or 5 years. All you need to start are a couple of root cuttings from a catalog or a friend who is growing it.

Plant it in the spring or fall while it is dormant and don’t harvest anything the first season. Let the plant build up its roots. Then from the second season on harvest about half the stalks that grow and stop the harvest in mid summer.

Now if you don’t think you will enjoy chomping down on a piece of raw rhubarb and enjoy the mouth watering, lip puckering, tangy taste, that’s OK. It’s great cooked in any number of ways.

My favorite is simply a simple sauce that is simple to make and simply delicious.

Two pounds of stalks will make about a quart of sauce, and did I mention it was simple.

The recipe:
Two pounds rhubarb stalks cut into approximately 1/2″ by 1/2″
chunks or any size even remotely close to that.
Using a bowl that will hold it all put in a layer of the pieces to
cover the bottom.
Now sprinkle on some sugar, as much as you want.
(Note: If you put in too much sugar and it’s too sweet there is not much you can do about it, but if you err on the side of too little sugar you can always add more later. I like mine on the tart side.)
Repeat the layers of rhubarb pieces and sprinklings of sugar until
all the rhubarb is used up.
Now cover the bowl and allow to stand in the refrigerator for a
few hours or over night.
Dump the rhubarb chunks and accumulated liquid into a sauce
pan that will hold it all with room to spare.
Slowly bring the mixture to a simmer stirring constantly.
Rhubarb breaks down rather quickly and since I like some big chunks in my sauce I only simmer long enough to blend in the liquid and cook away the raw taste.
Now transfer to a jar and refrigerate.
If you don’t think it will all get eaten in a few days you should
freeze part of it for use later in the year.

What could be simpler and yet so delicious, especially over pancakes when the wind is howling and the snow is blowing in mid January.

Originally posted: June 4th, 2007

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 5:45 am and is filed under Food, Garden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.