Rhubarb: tart but delicious

By Rennie Phillips

I grew up in rural Arthur County in Nebraska. Mom and Dad owned a small ranch where they raised Herford cattle and milked by hand way too many milk cows.

At least, growing up, I thought they milked too many. We had to milk them morning and night with no time off.

Every morning, we had to get those old sisters in and milk them. Then every night, it was the same routine. It was the pits! But what made it terrible was this milking regimen interfered with fishing.

The fish were just starting to bite when we had to head home to milk in the evening.

I swore, and we aren't supposed to swear, but I swore my milk was coming from a store when I grew up.

But I've softened up a bit. I'd get a milk cow now to let the grandkids learn how to milk, but hopefully my wife would volunteer to do the milking.

My grandparents lived about seven or eight miles north of where I grew up in Arthur County. (Arthur County is 25 miles square or so and has about 500 residents. It's rural!) Grandma and Grandpa were both born in Denmark and immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s. After crossing Nebraska using a wagon and team of horses, Grandpa and Grandma settled on 640 acres north of Arthur. Grandpa was a mason by trade, so he built many a chimney and cellar up there in the hills. He also raised cattle on their place.

We'd go visit Grandpa and Grandma and explore their place. They had planted mulberry trees, so we'd go pick some mulberries. They had the old purple ones, but they also had some of the white ones.

Grandpa had a locust thicket, so we'd play in the locust trees. When we felt like showing off, we'd climb up on the chicken house and jump off. But we also would head for Grandma's garden.

Along the west side of the garden were some rhubarb plants.

My brother, Mick, and I'd look the rhubarb over and pick the reddest and smallest stalk of rhubarb. Then we'd eat it raw. The small stalks were the most tender and it seemed like the redder the stalk, the sweeter it tasted. None of it was real sweet, but it seemed like the redder stalks were a bit sweeter.

Most old-timers had rhubarb growing around their place. It was fairly easy to get started in a new location simply by digging up part of an old established plant and transplanting it where you wanted.

Matter of fact, every now and then, one needs to divide an old established plant. It seems like it grows better when it's been divided like this.

We had some rhubarb, but since then we've planted more plants. I tried buying plants at local nurseries and didn't have much success.

I also ordered some through the mail without success. But several years ago I came across rhubarb seed in one of my nursery catalogs.

I ordered some and planted the seed, wondering if this was futile. The seed came up and turned into some really good-looking little plants. I started them in my shop and then transplanted them after the danger of frost was over.

We planted them along the south side of our little garden and pretty much left them alone for the first year. We pulled some of the stalks the second year, but not too many. By the third year the plants were ready to give us enough stalks for pies and jams and such. Most of what I raised is pretty much green with a hint of red. I wish it was redder, but it isn't.

You can turn the rhubarb stalks into about any kind of dessert. The leaves are poisonous, so don't eat the leaves. Eat just the stalks.

Marge makes a rhubarb bread that is pretty good.

Some mix the rhubarb with strawberries and turn this mixture into pies and such.

I prefer plain rhubarb. Some cook the rhubarb and use it as a topping for ice cream or a jam or jelly to put on toast or bread.

I like a kind of "rhubarb delight." I like to take a spoon and just eat a bite or two.

I also like to take a bite of old sorghum molasses and eat it now and then. Some say I'm strange, and that's probably true.

I think the old-timers raised and grew rhubarb because it was a dessert they could grow and afford.

Most all the residents where I grew up also raised currants and gooseberries. Some transplanted chokecherries to their places.

Many had black walnut trees. In the summer, we'd hunt down some sand cherries.

Out where we lived, you couldn't run to the grocery store and buy fresh pie or jam fixings, so rhubarb fit right in this slot. If you took care of your rhubarb plants, you could pick enough stalks for a pie now and then from spring to frost in the fall.

I think rhubarb plants like a cooler climate than we have here in Missouri. Our plants start to look a little piqued as we go through the hot part of the summer. But it seems like they rebound in the fall and look a whole lot better.

Rhubarb will not take a frost. I believe my brother's plants in Nebraska do better than ours. Part of this, I believe, is the weather. Part of it also is the sandy soil in Missouri.

If you have been looking for something to grow out of the ordinary, then check out rhubarb. It would make a nice landscaping plant that you could actually consume.

Until next time.