My patch of rhubarb came with the garden and its not something I would otherwise have thought to grow mainly because I prefer apple pie to rhubarb pie! But hubby loves rhubarb and this stuff seems to be well established in its corner. With the house having been owned and lived in by my granny-in-law, over quite a few years the rhubarb has been left to its own devices so it can't need much looking after.
There's a lot of information in magazines, blogs and on the Internet about how to grow rhubarb. I found these websites helpful:
Rhubarb needs frost early in the year to encourage it to grow. I can't remember if we had frost this year but, judging by the size of the rhubarb patch, I think we must have! Rhubarb is very hardy against the elements and pests although I did find a snail on one of the leaves yesterday and we're getting frost at the end of the week so I'll keep an eye on it. One think I'll need to look out for is rot in the base of its stalks and that happens if the rain doesn't drain away easily. I have sandy soil so shouldn't have to worry about it. We'll see!
The other day was beautifully sunny and I couldn't help taking a coffee and cream cake out to the patio and savouring both my home baking and my efforts in the garden! I realised my rhubarb was even bigger than when I'd taken the photo 2 weeks ago and one of the leaves was covering my poor Marguerite Daisy plant (the one in the flower bed - not the one given to me as a gift which is now at the front door). It was trying so hard to peek out from underneath the rhubarb to get some sunshine that I actually felt sorry for it! So I decided to be brave and harvest some of the larger stalks. I hope that taking out the larger stalks will give the smaller stalks some room to grow. And give the daisy plant a chance of some sunshine!
If you haven't harvested rhubarb before, the internet will give you step by step guidance. I used this website: http://www.wikihow.com/Harvest-Rhubarb
It really is quite easy to twist and pull from the base of the stalk. I managed to correctly pull 4 out of 5 stalks with the first one not quite as low down as it should have been but after that I put on gardening gloves and got right in there!
Once I'd picked the stalks I got a chopping board and a large knife to start topping and tailing. At this point hubby noted that I was doing it all wrong. This proved that the rhubarb has indeed been around for a long time since he used to do the topping and tailing for his granny when he was a wee boy. And so it was demonstrated to me, by the worst cook in the world, how to top and tail rhubarb:
1. hold the stem in mid-air at the end
2. place your knife just below the leaf
3. raise knife in the air and chop
4. repeat at the other end but chop just above the white bit
Easy as pie! You end up with some lovely rhubarb stalks:
I then excitedly bounded into the kitchen to cook something. Hubby mentioned rhubarb crumble and I'm quite good at the apple variety if I do say so myself so I decided Rhubarb Crumble it would be. You'll find the recipe I used on the Kitchen Capers page. Anyone who has used fresh produce from their garden will understand just how wonderful that Rhubarb Crumble was. The fact the rhubarb stalks were 30 minutes old when they went into the pot meant the finished dish was heavenly.
I don't have any more vegetables or fruits in the garden except the Pet Blueberry Stick (a blog entry for another day) and that's a shame as I'd love to try some more cooking/baking with home grown produce. I wonder if I could transfer the flowers somewhere else next year and have a vegetable patch instead of a flower bed....
I then excitedly bounded into the kitchen to cook something. Hubby mentioned rhubarb crumble and I'm quite good at the apple variety if I do say so myself so I decided Rhubarb Crumble it would be. You'll find the recipe I used on the Kitchen Capers page. Anyone who has used fresh produce from their garden will understand just how wonderful that Rhubarb Crumble was. The fact the rhubarb stalks were 30 minutes old when they went into the pot meant the finished dish was heavenly.
I don't have any more vegetables or fruits in the garden except the Pet Blueberry Stick (a blog entry for another day) and that's a shame as I'd love to try some more cooking/baking with home grown produce. I wonder if I could transfer the flowers somewhere else next year and have a vegetable patch instead of a flower bed....
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