More thoughts on rhubarb

I just read the article about rhubarb in the June 13 Lakeville Journal and thought I’d tell you about my experiences with it.

First of all, we had a row of rhubarb planted along the fence in the fruit garden on the Iowa farm where I grew up.  There were grapes and currants growing on wooden frames and apple trees in this garden.  Mom sometimes made sauce, but I never really cared for it.  

Then I discovered the recipe for fruit pies that is printed on the Minute tapioca box and that is the recipe I have always used.  I add a half teaspoon of almond extract. Do not combine it with strawberries.

Now I go to the garden and pull up stalks.  I tear off the leaves right there and leave them on the ground to become mulch.  I try to find thin, young stalks, although you can cut the large ones in half.  You need at least four cups for the pie.  

I use less sugar than the recipe calls for, and put little pieces of butter on top of the fruit before putting on the top crust.  Be sure to put something in the oven to catch the juice that will boil out of the pie, as it always does.  

I sometimes eat it for breakfast as it is basically a Danish pastry.

In Ruth Stout’s book about organic gardening she told that her brother, Rex, had a rhubarb plant in his garden that usually went to seed. He convinced a woman who saw it that it was an exotic plant from some foreign country.  She believed him.

I’ve never bought rhubarb in a store and eat it only once or twice a year, in the spring.  It is one of those things that is seasonal and tastes best fresh.

 Carolyn McDonough describes herself simply as “a retired world traveler and reader of mysteries and history. I have lived in several parts of the U.S. and ended up here in 1968.”