BS: rhubarb

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Apr 18 - 12:19 AM

It grows so fast that it is the only 'crop' that can grow to maturity on Kodiak Island.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 05:22 PM

Listen to the Sick Beats of Rhubarb Growing in the Dark; Snap, crackle, produce.
BY ERIC GRUNDHAUSER APRIL 10, 2018
Atlas Obscura www.atlasobscura.com

EVERYONE’S ALWAYS GOING ON ABOUT the sound of the leaves rustling in the trees, but if you want your mind blown by plant sounds, check out rhubarb growing in the dark.

Forced rhubarb, which is made to mature in near total darkness, grows at such an alarming rate—as much as an inch a day—that it actually makes squeaks, creaks, and pops as it gets bigger. It makes for sweeter rhubarb, growers say, and sick beats.

“I’m not patient enough to sit in the building, but I have heard the noise before. Growing against each other. You really have to listen for it,” says Brian French, a fifth-generation rhubarb grower and co-owner of the Lennox Farm in Melancthon, Ontario. French says that while he generally can’t hear the cracks and pops made by the rhubarb because of the loud fans and other noise, the sounds are definitely there.
...
more at the link, include a YouTube with the audio.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 May 13 - 01:44 PM

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

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Paul Reade
Date: 30 May 13 - 01:25 PM

How about barbecued rhubarb?!

We once tried it when the fire was still going after all the meat was finished. Just cover the rhubarb with honey and demerara sugar, and put it on a piece of aluminium foil on the grill until it looks ready. Delicious!

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Musket
Date: 30 May 13 - 06:09 AM

I will have to try the grapefruit in my rhubarb sorbet. As I noted above, I find ginger to be a great ingredient, and also have been known to add it to rhubarb crumble.

One of my clumps of plants gives very green rhubarb which does take a little sweetening, whereas the other gives a lovely red stalk which takes very little to take the edge off it.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 30 May 13 - 05:49 AM

If you don't want to add sugar, throw in some sweet cicely if you have any in the garden. The rhubarb will still be very tart, which is how I like it, but the cicely will take the edge off. For my money, you can't beat stewed rhubarb with muesli and yoghurt...

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: ClaireBear
Date: 29 May 13 - 05:29 PM

Rhubarb, grapefruit juice and sugar made the best sorbet I've ever tasted. I boiled the rhubarb with sugar and then pulped it in a blender. I cooled it, added freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice and froze it in my ice-cream freezer. The texture of the pulped rhubarb imparts a lovely consistency to the frozen sorbet!

I would supply the recipe if I still had it, but it was lost in the fire. I'm pretty sure that's about all there was to it, though.

Cheers,
Claire

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 May 13 - 04:25 PM

LOL Ed T! But it's excellent for constipation!

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,JHW
Date: 29 May 13 - 04:16 PM

Joe I don't use actual Sugar in anything. Rhubarb I cook in apple juice (out of the litre box) very slowly, below simmer. I don't put sugar in custard either though for rhubarb I usually make tapioca (not tinned) and plop in a helping of the rhubarb. The sweetness of the apple juice does for the rhubarb and the tapioca.
I'll try the pineapple though.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Ed T
Date: 28 May 13 - 07:45 PM

Rhubarb- Yuk!

I pulled it out of the garden of every new property I have purchased throughout my life. I hate the taste, the texture, and even hate the look of it.

IMO, it's disgusting stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,LynnT
Date: 28 May 13 - 05:05 PM

Didn't have any strawberries to go with a mess of rhubarb a friend gave me, so I used pears -- sweetened with a bit of honey and ginger & orange peel, it made a lovely pink pie.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 May 13 - 05:06 AM

My wife doesn't like to use processed sugar when she's cooking, so she's been mixing rhubarb with crushed pineapple. Tastes very good.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Penny S.
Date: 28 May 13 - 04:46 AM

I've made a puree with a cut stem of angelica added. I had my doubts, because the raw angelica doesn't have the smell of the crystallised stuff, just smells like any old umbellifer, but the flavour develops through the cooking and goes really well with the rhubarb - it was a forced type.
If rhubarb goes with licorice, then it might be worth trying it with my sweet cicely, which is aniseedy. (I pulled up a load of that which had popped up where I had put a mediterranean salad mix under the impression it was a weed. Ho hum.)

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 May 13 - 05:54 PM

All my rhubarb crowns have bolted. I've cut the flowering stem off each one, but the remaining stems now taste very sharp. We need RAIN, my water barrel is empty.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: gnu
Date: 27 May 13 - 05:08 PM

Musket... thanks. MGM... HAHAHAHAHAHAA!

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 May 13 - 03:30 PM

What does rhubarb say?

"People·people·people·people..."

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,Musket sans cookie
Date: 27 May 13 - 12:37 PM

Just pulled my rhubarb patch, or at least most of it. Still a bit left.

Boiled it in batches and froze it in pie / crumble portions to last for the next few months.

As a first and as an experiment I used the ice cream maker we recently bought to make a rhubarb and ginger sorbet.

Champion.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Bettynh
Date: 26 May 13 - 02:12 PM

This website has everything you'd ever want to know about rhubarb and lots of recipes too.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 26 May 13 - 01:31 PM

and there are two more rhubarb-related posts on that blog (the two previous to the one above) (I'm catching up after a busy week):

'Rabarber' (Rhubarb) linen designed by Gocken Jobs

paintings with rhubarb by Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 26 May 13 - 01:10 PM

At this "Nordic Thoughts" blog post, Rhubarbs...and rabarbrakake : a Carl Larsson picture, "Karin peeling rhubarb"; a recipe for Norwegian rhubarb cake (rabarbrakake); and a picture of Lena Anderson's Maja with a giant stalk of rhubarb.

(Nordic Thoughts is my new favorite blog to go to for a mental health break.)

~ Becky in Tucson, but not for much longer

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 07:42 PM

Sorcha - I'll pick your brains in Mudchat some time...
Better than eating Rhubarb!
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 05:16 PM

I'll bet the custard was off. The rubarb was fine.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 11:29 AM

If you cut/eat it after it's bolted, it will be very sour, strong and possibly bitter, but it won't kill you (unless you eat 7 bowls of it......)

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,Gervase
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 08:03 AM

Old chimney pots, drainpipes or buckets with the bottoms knocked out are ideal for forcing yur rhubarb - just keep the light off the stems and make those leaves strain for the sky. My grandfather used that method to grow specimens that would shade a bullock.
I wish I could still eat it - but after said grandfather bet me I couldn't eat seven bowls of rhubarb and custard I was sick as a dog, the world dropped out of my bottom and I haven't been able to stomach it since.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: gnu
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 05:23 AM

My neighbour says just pull the flowering stalks and enjoy the rest.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 07:18 PM

Too late. It's bolted. Cut it early.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,SINSULL
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 05:56 PM

Damned if I know, Geoff. We have had day after day of rain and i forgot about the rhubarb. Now it is four feet tall, at least and covered with little flowers. Too late?
HELP!

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 05:25 PM

Geoff, the stuff will grow anywhere. Transplant crowns in spring after frost so it can grow all summer. I have some in sandy loam and some on the alley in very poor, gravelly soil. It's sorta like dandelions. You can hardly kill it.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,nutty
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 05:07 PM

Look here for everything you might want to know about rhubarb

The Rhubarb Compendium

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: gnu
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 03:10 PM

"... how do you encourage best crop ?" My mother's apple tree had a blight last summer and a lot of apples "fell". I piled them on the sides of the rhubarb patch and the taste of the rhubarb is unreal... I ate a small stalk this afternoon with no sugar and, although still slightly tart, it was delicious. Now, my neighbour swears by leaves raked up in the fall - he loads them on. As well, he has a compost just a few feet away on the uphill side. One of the stalks last year was as big as my wrist (which might be funny if you read a certain post in another thread).

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 03:00 PM

my grampa use to go out of his way to mow down the rhubarb...

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 02:53 PM

Okay SINSULL - Mrs.Duck likes the stuff and we spotted a clump in my sister's garden yesterday.
As the biologist in the family I would like to ask you all the technicalities of lifting and growing the stuff.
What is the best time in the growing season to divide an old clump of Rhubarb?
What is the best garden site to get a good crop?
Do we want sunlight or shade? and in what proportions?
What soil conditions suit rhubarb growing?
Other than Horse Manure (as opposed to Bullshit), how do you encourage best crop?
What about FORCING? - When in growing season do you stick it under a bucket?
Quack!
Geoff the (wary of bartenders) Duck!

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 02:04 PM

Oops! Forgot all about my cake recipe.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake
1/2 cup (4 oz) solid shortening
1 1/2 cups caster sugar (12 oz)
1 egg
8 oz. sour cream
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (16 oz)
1 1/2 cup raw rhubarb, cut in chunks

1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon

Mix shortening and sugar with egg. Add sour cream and remaining ingredients except cinnamon sugar. Add rhubarb last. Pour in to a greased and floured 9x13" pan. Sprinkle with the cinammon sugar. Bake at 350 (F) 35-45 minutes.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: robinia
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 01:15 PM

I have both rhubarb and raspberries in my back forty, and they make a great jam or compote or whatever you want to call it. (Easier than pie making, and it keeps...) The critical thing is to cut up the rhubarb and let it sit for a day with the added sugar -- this has the effect of "shrinking" the pieces so they can cook up nice and thick in their own extracted juice (candied ginger and orange zest are nice additions at the end too),

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 17 Apr 03 - 08:56 PM

refresh

(I hate to be a thread killer...)

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 04:09 PM

And for some non-BS content to this thread, courtesy of The Rhubarb Compendium:

The Rhubarb Tart Song

1. I want another slice of rhubarb tart.
I want another lovely slice.
I'm not disparaging the blueberry pie
But rhubarb tart is oh so very nice.
A rhubarb what? A rhubarb tart!
A whatbarb tart? A rhubarb tart!
I want another slice of rhubarb tart!

2. The principles of modern philosophy
Were postulated by Descartes.
Discarding everything he wasn't certain of
He said 'I think therefore I am a rhubarb tart.'
A rhubarb what? A rhubarb tart!
A Rene who? Rene Descartes!
Poor nut he thought he was a rhubarb tart!

3. Read all the existentialist philosophers,
Like Schopenhauer and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Even Martin Heidegger agrees on one thing:
Eternal happiness is rhubarb tart.
A rhubarb what? A rhubarb tart!
A Jean-Paul who? A Jean-Paul Sartre!
Eternal happiness is rhubarb tart.

4. A rhubarb tart has fascinated all the poets.
Especially the immortal bard.
He caused Richard the Third to call on Bosworth Field:
'My kingdom for a slice of rhubarb tart!'
A rhubarb what? A rhubarb bard!
Immortal what? Immortal tart!
As rhymes go that is really pretty bard!

John Cleese
Tune, anyone??

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Beccy
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 03:59 PM

I have a fabulous rhubarb/cream cheese pie recipe. Anyone want it? I'll post it if you do.

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: MMario
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 03:58 PM

A local winegrower used to make an excellent rhubarb-white wine cooler. I know she juiced the rhubarb - but have no idea what wine she used - it was most likely one of her company's own varietals.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 03:56 PM

My Dad use to grow rhubarb in New Jersey, and be the only one in the house to eat it. I remember hating the smell of it cooking. I think he just stewed it up with some suger and ate it over vanilla ice cream. Sometime in adulthood, I discovered strawberry rhubarb pie and have learned the error of my ways, but I can see by this thread that I have not mined the depth of rhubarb possibilities.

I'm still waiting for the crumble recipe, and Sorcha's "dump cake."

Also, the link cited above on the toxins is to a page on a site with everything you might ever possibly want to know about the plant (including history, cultivation, recipes, etc.). Here it is again: The Rhubarb Compendium (www.rhubarbinfo.com).

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 06:48 PM

A woman at work has a recipe for rhubarb-strawberry jam. I will post it when I get it. Thanks for all the recipes. Still waiting on the crumble, Deckman.

Geoff - SIGH!!!! You knew what I meant - a rhubarb pie with strawberries added for sweetness. Remember what happened to that annoying little duck in the Mudcat Tavern. Don't make me sic the bartender on you!

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: MMario
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 12:46 PM

Robomatic - some sources claim licorice is a plant Glycyrrhiza Glabra and related species

but everyone knows it is REALLY mined...

As verified by this qoute found on the web (they wouldn't put it there if it wren't true, right?)

English ...Liquorice is dug up in late autumn and sold mostly in the fresh state for making extract, only a small amount being dried. Fresh Liquorice (English) when washed is externally of a bright yellowish brown. It is very flexible, easily cut with a knife, exhibiting a light yellow, juicy internal substance,... has a peculiar earthy odor and a strong, characteristic, sweet taste. The English Extract of Liquorice,... sold in the lozenge form and known as Pontefract or Pomfrey cakes, is said to have a more delicate flavour than that of imported varsities.

Spain formerly yielded most of the supply, hence the Extract is still termed 'Spanish Juice,' but that of the first grade has long been depleted to the point of scarcity."

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: MMario
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 12:22 PM

if you have a LOT of rhubarb - you can leave several clumps un-touched through the end of the normal season - then cut them back completly - forcing tender new growth. But you should only do it to a clump once every three years.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 11:59 AM

I didn't know licorice was grown. I thought it was extruded!


Eccles: "MY mutha loiks licorish, she says it gives you a good run for yore munnie!"

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: Gurney
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 06:43 AM

It's been touched on, but here it is again. If you want good rhubarb, fertilise, fertilise, fertilise. Greedy stuff.
We always used to bury the family pets under it, after they died of natural causes, like trucks.
Sour bloody stuff, but LOTS os Vitamin C in it.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: mouldy
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 03:49 AM

I have a little liquorice plant in my garden too...

...and it's of no significance whatsoever that my sister in law is married to a Consultant Gastroenterologist!!!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,Gnomad
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 03:10 AM

Duh- Squatting in the centre of the Rhubarb triangle as I type, got carried away with the return key.

Competition between local growers is a family feud, handed down from one generation to the next, and deadly serious. One thing I don't think GtD mentioned is the picking by candle light (so as not to spoil the blanching effect achieved by growing the stuff in a dark shed heated largely by decomposing manure).

Our local radio station even broadcast a programme which included a sequence in which you just listened to the creaks & pops of the crop slowly growing in the dark.

I wonder sometimes about the bowel obsession of this area, we are just a few miles west of the (former) liquorice-growing fields of Pontefract, another laxative product. I have even heard tell of those who combine the two, my mental picture of the mixture is not pleasant, but I reckon it could taste OK, I haven't been mad enough to try it.

As for combing chives, doesn't everyone?

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,GNOMAD
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 02:56 AM

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: gnu
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 09:54 PM

..."What, do you comb your chives too?"... Uh, gee, I, uh, asked because I didn't know. Isn't that why most people ask ?

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 08:45 PM

One thing about rhubarb -- stop picking by June, as the plants need to feed themselves for the following year. Make sure you leave some stalks with fairly big leaves for self-feeding.

Subject: RE: BS: rhubarb
From: robomatic
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 07:03 PM

Has anyone ever seen wild rhubarb. On several hiking trips I've seen this stuff in Alaska, parsley sized plants. I avoid the leaves and gnaw on the stems - to date without ill effect.


A use for rhubarb leaves. If you've got an old dishwasher that's gone kind of grotty or stained. Been told to operate it empty except for some rhubarb leaves. Otherwise I use them to floor and top the composter.