Saturday, March 17, 2012

I'll rhu the day

Rhubarb, that is. The rhubarb patch in our garden had gotten all grown over with weeds so I thought I'd fix that this year. The first thing I did was to apply a bit of roundup (not very ecologically correct, but efficient) on the weeds before the rhubarb sprouted. That was about a week or so ago. The weeds obligingly died.

New rhubarb sprouts poking up through the soil.

Yesterday I went out and pulled up the dead and dying weeds to find the rhubarb actually starting to sprout. This will be the first year in many that the rhubarb will have a weed-free patch to grow in. I'm hoping for a good crop. We had a decent crop last year because we watered the patch more than usual. So I'll try to keep it well watered again this year. Stay tuned.

7 comments:

  1. You can dig the roobarb plant up in winter and leave it in a sheltered place... my 'first' father-in-law used to do this... every year... and his rhubarb crop was superb! Moi... too much hassle!
    What I have done is split a crown and put half in a large black sack in the cellar... that gives an early crop of 'pink' rhubarb... very tasty!
    In the UK, we were on the edge of the Rhubarb Triangle [centred on Wakefield, Yorkshire]where they have a Rhubarb Festival every year and you can go round the forcing sheds and hear the rhubarb growing... there is even a cheese made locally called "Ruby Gold" which has a layer of rhubarb pulp through the middle... rather like the layer of ash through Morbier.

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  2. I remember your rhubarb crumble tart from last year.......mmmmmm delish !!

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  3. Such fun to have things starting to sprout!

    Walt, about my feedback comment yesterday: yes, the comments are exactly the same font and color and everything as the blog itself. It's not that... maybe it's something about the skimming factor. It doesn't bother me to read your blog in that color against black, but the comments were easier to skim through with the bright white background. It's totally a personal preference thing for me, not something wrong with it... I just prefer the white background for the comments section :)

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  4. You mock me on this, but dammit THAT IS A TRIFFID.

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  5. Oh Walt. Rhubarb is the one plant that gags me. I don't know why, it just does. I remember once years ago I was with a friend visiting his friend. HIs Mom made rhubarb pie. With sugar sprinkled on the crust yet! Or course I couldn't refuse a slice when his mom offered me one. It was all I could do not to throw up. Then she insisted I have another piece. I ate it then ran to the bathroom and barfed. Everyone knew. That Walt was my rhubarb experience. You blog picture is the first time I've even seen rhubarb in almost fifty years. It doesn't look good. I'm glad you're not going to offer me a slice of pie.

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  6. tim, I understood that rhubarb likes to be divided every five years or so. But digging it up every year... yes, too much hassle!

    jean, oh yes, that one was particularly good!

    judy, I think it's interesting that you see the blackground as black. It's actually a very deep brown. That's why the fonts are in cream and orange, to kind of go with the brown.

    michael, I mock you not. Have you seen someone about this?

    ron, the plants get a lot nicer looking as they grow. I think everyone has at least one food that they react badly to. I used to gag when I tried to eat asparagus, but now I love it. But don't worry, I won't try to force any rhubarb on you! But I do reserve the right to post more pictures of the stuff! ;)

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  7. Walt, yes, sorry, yes I remember that you talked about this being very dark brown --yup, against black, that's definitely what it is :)) Funny, because yesterday, we were in a store, and Elliot was sitting in a very dark brown leather chair, and the sales-person came up and, out of nowhere, said, "That's not black, you know, it's very dark brown."

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