RHUBARB! First pickins of the season!
Our Rhubarb has been EXPLODING this year! Took a little walk through the garden this morning and figured enough shoots were ripe enough to start our weekend ritual of thinning the patch and prepping for a busy fall canning season.
We will pick until early July, and it's so plentiful have gotten into the habit of using different parts of the shoots for different purposes. Started plucking the nicest shoots and had a good 5 lbs this first pick.
chopped the bottoms and top 3rd with the leaves into the garbage bin. Important to remember the leaves of a rhubarb plant are TOXIC so we do not compost them, nor let the bunnies anywhere near. Bag them for the landfill. I've read some people actually make a decent organic pesticide with the leaves, as the toxins do dissipate but until I research more off to the dump they go!
Nice cold water bath and a gentle scrub to remove any dried leaves or bugs (there were none), and to the sorting table. any shoots that were less than perfect went into a bag which will be used as mash for fruit wine later this year. If you like coolers or fruit wine and have not tried Rhubarb raspberry please accept my condolences.
Ok, onto the fun part. WE make all of our jam in fall and rhubarb goes great with both our strawberries and raspberries. I prefer the smaller ripe lower part of the shoots for this, as they give off brilliant colour when canned. I'll cut the bottom quarter of the best shoots just for the jam or syrup. I love when there is white, red on the insides, and dark colour on the skin. End result is always a brilliant pink.
Once that bottom few inches is cut ill slice them to around 1/4 inch so that none of the skin fibers will be long enough to be noticeable in the jam. They are put into their own bag. We will pan them out later for flash freezing before storing in the freezer.
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The next 1/4 of the bottom we will save for the strawberries and rapberries, which are coming out in force now. Nothing like a piping hot rhubarb strawberry crumble with ice cream. Also good if cured in sugar and added to muffins or pancakes. These parts ill cut in 1 inch chunks because when baking you don't want them to dissolve.
The greener top half of the shoots along with any blemished stalks has been bagged and I'll bring them to our parents house for processing into fruit wine.
I'll be sure to keep posting as this years harvest goes on, as well as our recipes as we make them. Please follow if you want to see more from our urban garden or are interested in learning a couple nice organic recipes come canning season!!
Cheers!
I got my own little Strawberry and Rubarb operation going in my backyard. One Rhubarb that's been there for years in acidy soil along with a group of potted strawberries. Great combo.
definitely go great together!!
the bulk of our canning though is with raspberries, mostly because they grow like weeds and we have a massive jungle of raspberry bushes, plus the kids really like the strawberries as a standalone. we will even slice and sugar cure them, dehydrate them, and add to cold cereal they are fantastic!
SO MUCH rhubarb! It's a rare delicacy here in Asia but I grew up eating lots of it in Australia. Is your rhubarb fibrous or stringy at all?? I know my mom's often was in Oz but I think it probably grew too fast. Nice post.
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the skin is fibrous which is why we separate the ripest parts for the jam and cut them in thin chunks so that it isn't noticed in the finished product, otherwise it really isn't bad though and still great in baking!!
Even here where its fairly common you will still pay top dollar for it in grocery stores, which is why its such a pleasure to grow.
I've read articles about commercially produced rhubarb being grown underground much like mushrooms, apparently it doesn't need sunlight and the stalks become brilliant red. not sure if that's truth or rumor, id have to research further
You've been visited by @minismallholding from Homesteaders Co-op.
No, don't send those leaves to landfill! They are perfectly safe to compost. The toxin is Oxalic acid, which is actually in many of our food vegetables at low levels (I've heard of rabbits surviving a quick nibble). Cooking breaks it down and so does the composting process. Here's a bit more on composting the leaves: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/rhubarb/can-compost-rhubarb-leaves.htm
Anyway, It's lovely to see another urban gardener on here. I don't think we can ever have too many! ;D I've given you a shout out in the Homesteaders - Natural Living newsletter.
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hey thanks a ton that's awesome to read your reply!! yeah I had heard that it broke down over time and was actually useable but with cats, dogs, kids, bunnies, just didn't want to take any chances of composting.
definitely following you from now on, thanks for the info !!
I know what you mean. Most of my composting is via the chickens, but I put anything potentially toxic to them in an enclosed composting bin or the tumbler.
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