Rhubarb!

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Cut it into biggish chunks, pour on some honey and bake in a hotish oven.

Or Rhubarb Crumble and Custard.

I'm on my third crumble in two weeks at the moment

 

[ComedyPilot]

I almost bought some rhubarb, but then remembered a 'wild' patch growing a few miles from home. I might raid that instead.

 

[Glow worm]

I seem to have a real talent for growing rhubarb. It goes in an old raised bed, in about 4' of soil and I religiously heap a foot of compost on the crowns every February. I get leaves about 2' square and stalks 2" thick, from mid April to mid July.

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Ours is in flower- on huge, Triffid like stalks. I suspect I should cut these back- is that right? The rhubard's been in place about a year- last year it was hopeless- green and stringy, so hoping for better this time.

 

[colly]

I was given some rhubarb ready for planting a while back in a black plastic bag. Left at the side of the house and forgotten I came across it last weekend and the bag was fit to bust with the stalks growing up.

I'll harvest it today.

 

[Mark_Robson]

As a kid we used to go off over the fields with a bag of sugar. We knew where there was rhubarb groing wild on some old abandoned allotment site. The bag of sugar was to dip the rhubarb in to sweeten it.
We'd spend the days of summer out in the fields and woods eating rhubarb and any other soft fruit we could find.

Reading that has just allowed one of those forgotten about childhood memories to resurface. There were a bunch of us who did exactly the same when I was nine or ten, and until today I had totally forgotten about being out in the wild, with my mates, experiencing for the first time the pleasure of dipping wild rhubarb into a bag of sugar..........Happy days

 

[ASC1951]

Ours is in flower- on huge, Triffid like stalks. I suspect I should cut these back- is that right? The rhubard's been in place about a year- last year it was hopeless- green and stringy, so hoping for better this time.

My two plants are about 40 inches high but are just starting to fling up flower heads. You must cut those flower stalks off before they unfurl, otherwise the plant will switch off leaf production.

You aren't supposed to take any stalks off in the first year if you want a good crop thereafter. The other thing I find is that rhubarb is such a tough plant that you will get some crop even if you neglect it, but if you have it in full sun in deep soil and pile compost over it all winter you will get much much better results.

[If the plant starts putting up flower heads too early it's usually because it is too crowded.]

 

[Twenty Inch]

Top tip = boil the rhubarb until all liquidy - a drop of water will help. Strain the liquid, and mix 1:1 with ginger beer. A lovely summer drink.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Glowworm your rhubarb needs a really good feed.

 

[Glow worm]

My two plants are about 40 inches high but are just starting to fling up flower heads. You must cut those flower stalks off before they unfurl, otherwise the plant will switch off leaf production.

You aren't supposed to take any stalks off in the first year if you want a good crop thereafter. The other thing I find is that rhubarb is such a tough plant that you will get some crop even if you neglect it, but if you have it in full sun in deep soil and pile compost over it all winter you will get much much better results.

[If the plant starts putting up flower heads too early it's usually because it is too crowded.]

Thanks for the advice-& I'll chop the flower stalks off- shame I rather like them! I'll give them a dose of Tomorite liquid food (thanks 20") - the strawberries love that so should be OK for rhubarb too hopefully.

 

[Fnaar]

Another quick rhubarb tip (I love the stuff, and have some growing)... just boil lightly, add sugar to taste, and bung it on your cornflakes

The raw rhubarb/bag of sugar thing brought back memories for me too...

 

[Twenty Inch]

One of my rhubarb patches has been sorely neglected over the last few years and has gone to seed in a big way. We'll cut it back,feed it, and then divide the crown in autumn, a pal is after some. The other patch is doign nicely, thank you.

 

[Twenty Inch]

A mulch of well rotted horse shite goes down well too - for rhubarb plants I mean!

That's what we shall do.

 

[Glow worm]

A mulch of well rotted horse shite goes down well too - for rhubarb plants I mean!

Well I live close to the centre of world horse racing. In the centre of Newmarket- they don't have cycle paths, but horse paths ! And can I find anywhere selling or giving away horse shite? Can I heck! You'd have thought it would be a doddle.

 

[garrilla]

Yes, me. Then sweetened with Dark Muscovado Sugar, which gives it a slight licorice taste. Eat with yoghurt or full hit ice cream.

We also add the pif of an orange.

We first had ours about 5 weeks ago. At the end of feb I went and covered a couple patches with upside down black dustbins - I think you Yorkies call it 'blanching'? It makes it 'reach' quicker and grows sweeter. I'll remove the bins in a couple of weeks and let it summer au naturel.