I saw rhubarb in a store I was in last week, I was kind of surprised, because you don't see it that often. I think it was Kroger. I have never cooked with it. I forgot when I was at Penn State, it was served in little dishes with lots of sugar as a dessert. It wasn't bad. I have no great hankering for rhubarb though. I wouldn't turn down a strawberry rhubarb pie though. I never heard of cherry rhubarb, I guess that combination isn't used much.
Rhubarb is looking good, you may have to transplant some if they all come back, they will be a little to close.
Perhaps. I've had trouble with them surviving the winters. I think I'll try covering the bed with mulch before the snow this year. Being along the driveway, snow is packed pretty tightly during the winter, and that might reduce the problem.
I never understood why people found rhubarb yummy. I remember my mom made a rhubarb pie and I didn't like it. Isn't it a tough plant to soften so you can eat it? Where is it mainly grown in the United States?
Although it may grow in warmer climates, I don't think it does well in warm weather. Rhubarb is a winter hardy plant so it is most often found in the northern cold-weather states, where we're more limited on what we can grow. I like eating rhubarb right from the plant. Although it is a bit stringy, I can eat it just as it comes. In fact, in my opinion, many people go wrong in baking a rhubarb pie by adding far too much sugar. Although I like rhubarb pies, many people only like it when it is used in conjunction with strawberries, cherries or some other fruit. In such cases, the rhubarb serves to add a tang to the pie filling.
I live way up north.. On top of lake Huron and I have so much rhubarb that grows up here that I have NO choice but to give it away.. I keep enough to make a compote every year.. I dice my stems and put them in a HUGE pot with only one cup of liquid to get them started.. I stew them on med.low heat till they actually dissolve.. I also add 2 cans of frozen concentrated orange juice as well as a frozen bag of strawberries to the mixture.. I add just enough sugar to take away the tartness.. It cooks for a few hours.. After it is cooked, I cool it down and put it in the fridge to cool and thicken.. What a wonderful desert that makes.. Over ice cream or just plain like that.. My rhubarb bush yields me 2 full crops per year.. Way too much for me to use..
The rhubarb is doing very well. We've had enough for a pie already, and probably would have had enough for another if I hadn't been eating some of them as they come. It looks like my rhubarb is going to be successful, although I'll have to thin it out some perhaps. Because the ones I planted the year before last didn't come up last year, I planted more this spring, then the ones from the year before last decided to make an appearance.
I was reading something the other day about dried rhubarb extract being used to treat a variety of conditions. I guess you could probably buy it at health food stores, and Amazon of course..I haven't seen in it most stores. It apparently was ancient Chinese medicine and was or has been used in the treatment of GI and renal function disorders, and for the treatment of hyperlipidemia and cancer. So, I would put that in the category of Who Knew?? The clinical evidence isn't very strong though apparently
I have a very small bed of rhubarb that I had to transplant to it's current location when I moved. I had not picked much this Spring and it was going to seed and looking ratty so I just cut it short and let it grow again. I now have nice stalks coming up. I like pulling out a stalk and munching on it when I am out in the yard working or relaxing. I love the sweet sourness of the stalks and love making sauce and pie.
I have rhubarb in my garden ,I recently had a few plums left over ( from my tree) Apples by the box's full ,and rhubarb so I stewed together apples ,plums and rhubarb it had a rather nice tang .I make my own plain unflavoured yoghurt ,which ( at least I know how much sugar is in it ) I eat it for breakfast most mornings ,with some of my own home grown , stewed fruit ,which I have a choice of apricots ,peaches ,plums ,or the mix of RPA .I further add powdered sunflower seeds ,(which I buy as seeds and powder them in my NutriBullet ) and I also add flaked almonds ...
I know the rhubarb patch my parents had was nearly maintenance free. Mom might have weeded around it once in a while but mostly it was just there every year, and by the time she was ready to make another pie, there was more of it. That was what I had hoped for. For some reason, the first time I planted it though, it didn't come back the following year. A few years later, after I had planted new rhubarb, some of the old stuff came back. If it continues as it has this spring, it looks like it's established.
I really want to grow rhubarb; but every time I plant it, it dies in the summer heat, even when I put it in a shady area. The best one was when I planted the rhubarb in a container, and then I left it out in the morning, and brought it inside during the heat of the day. Once I thought it was doing really good, I started leaving it out longer, and then it died, too. So, today I was doing a search for growing rhubarb in the South, and I found this webpage from someone in Texas that grows rhubarb. He starts it from seed inside in the late summer, and then starts moving it outside in the fall, and it stays outside all winter and in the spring, it starts really growing and producing rhubarb. So, basically you would grow it like a winter plant down here, according to the website. They throw theirs away in May-June when it starts getting too hot, and then start new seeds again in the fall, and grow it like an annual. It seems to me like I might be able to pot it up in the summer and just grow it in the house for June-August, and then put it back out for the winter. The front of the house faces east, and it gets early morning sun; but then the trees shade it the rest of the day, so I am thinking that if I can get some established roots, I might be able to leave them out front to grow. I found rhubarb seeds on ebay; so I am going to order some and see how it goes. I will start some in containers and some in the aerogarden. https://www.texasgardener.com/pastissues/julaug03/rhubarb.html