Spring

When we bought our two houses in 2000 -- one for Mom and Dad, and one for us - one of the first things Dad and I did the next spring was to plant rhubarb. Rhubarb is one of those signs of spring things.... maybe not the best tasting thing out of the garden, but always the first one of spring. Before it is even warm enough to plant anything but maybe some peas, the rhubarb is up and going, and available to harvest. Just cut up the stems into short lengths, add quite a bit of sugar, and cook it down. (actual recipe - 1/4 cup of sugar per cup of cut up rhubarb stems) That slightly odd taste and feeling in the mouth - sort of like concentrated spinach feeling - is from oxalic acid. You should not eat the leaves because there is enough oxalic acid in the leaves to be toxic, but the stems are a harbinger of spring - free food, and a great feeling. I skipped the rhubarb last year since it is on the list of things that help build kidney stones , and I was just recovering from one! I'm not sure what variety of rhubarb we planted back in the spring of 2001, but every year we get the reddest and tastiest rhubarb imaginable! And as you can see from the picture above, the stems are huge!