What a load of Rhubarb!
Cast your mind back to the fabulous sunny months of April, May and June, when the rhubarb plants were producing delicious stems of juicy fruit, perfectly ripe for crumble. Each of the stems (so technically not a fruit at all) which blushed with the colour of pink champagne or deep raspberry sorbet depending on the variety, could easily be torn from the plant, topped and tailed and then either used immediately or blanched and frozen for later.
Rhubarb freezes very well, and lasts for around a year, in fact I made a crumble in April this year using last years frozen harvest. Chopped into 1cm pieces, it can be placed directly into freezer bags, but to retain its colour should be blanched for around 1 minute in boiling water. Allow to cool and dry before freezing. To revive, boil in a little fresh orange juice, a teaspoon of cinnamon powder and sugar to taste before allowing to cool.
It’s a versatile
crop and makes great jam, compote and crumble, and tastes delicious when made as above and served with crème fraîche.
Rhubarb originates from the colder parts of China and its popularity is fairly recent in historical terms, becoming more widely eaten as sugar became less expensive. The leaves are toxic and so too are the stems later on in the year, because the toxic acids move down the stems from the leaves and into the crown as the winter temperatures cool.
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October is the perfect time to plant rhubarb if you haven’t got any at the moment and would like a patch of your own. It’s quite un-fussy and will grow in sun or part shade as long as the soil is moisture retentive. Add well-rotted manure to the planting hole and mulch the plant with a ‘doughnut’ shape of manure about 50cm deep in spring. Give the plant a feed with ‘blood, fi sh and bone’ in March and watch it grow!
It’s an easy perennial plant,
which produces giant leaves and is pretty resistant to pests, although hungry mammals might feast on the crowns in early spring when food is scarce.
Early rhubarb can be ‘forced’ inside up-turned dust bins, but only do this with established plants. Place a black bin (or terracotta rhubarb forcing jar if you’re a pro) over the plant in early spring, and then enjoy the small, tender and sweet stems as they develop and search for the light.
Grown commercially in large
dark sheds in the Yorkshire rhubarb triangle - between Wakefi eld, Leeds and Morley - this wonderful vegetable (classed as a fruit for tax reasons) can also be divided up this month if you have a large overgrown patch.
Happy Gardening...
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