I opened this thread assuming that someone would already have mentioned the Kipper Family's Stick of Rhubarb song, but as far as I can see, no-one has... though this should put the thread above the line:

The Stick of Rhubarb



This poignant reflection on the loss of youth and the coming of age shows the way in which our ancestors related their lives to the nature they saw all around them. The theme is the same one found in The Bunch of Turnips and The Bag of Ferrets.

Dot Kipper's recipe for Rhubarb and Thyme Surprise has been withheld for reasons of taste, decency, and planetary overpopulation.



The Stick of Rhubarb appears on Sid's album Like A Rhinestone Ploughboy.





Come all you fair and tender men,

I pray be always on your guard;

Beware, beware, to keep your garden fair,

And let no-one steal your rhubarb.



For rhubarb is a precious thing;

Rhubarb means all to a man.

O-oh rhubarb in it's season can drive away all reason,

And when pulled it will surely come again.



The gardener she was standing by;

I told her I'd like it in a tart.

She promised she would take it, and in her oven bake it,

But she said it must grow more ere she'd start.



Now I put my rhubarb all on show;

The judges said they'd mark my card.

Oh I won a special prize at the North Walsham assize;

Now my rhubarb is in for twelve months hard.



In April my rhubarb springs to life;

It swells most splendidly in May;

It flourishes in June, and is eagerly consumed,

But in Julie it withers clean away.


You can probably guess the tune - so enjoy - Kitty