Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb….

How fantastic is rhubarb. It sits there in the forgotten corner of the garden waiting for you raid its leaves.It never complains though you dont remember to feed it or weed it and it goes on producing  for  years and years .Its one of the first spring foods growing in your garden and it keeps going for months .It can be used in so many dishes both savory and sweet .It really earns its space on the plot.

We use rhubarb in so  many dishes here. In rhubarb tarts,crumbles and meringue pies,in relishes, in soup,as a stuffing for mackerel and it makes a tasty cordial.

This however is one of our best rhubarb recipes. I found it years ago in one of my Grandma’s cook books and tweaked it and its become a favorite. It’s simple and fast and makes a good sized cake It was exactly what I needed for the local Altzheimers Society teaday at the start of the month and my girls made one on sunday to take to a barbeque. An excellent cake also for brunches.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

1/2 cup  butter

1/2cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

1tsp baking powder

1tsp vanilla

1/2tsp salt

2 1/2cup flour

grated rind and juice of an orange

Mix up the above until smooth then add

3 cups chopped rhubarb

pour into a greased 13x 9 inch pan

then sprinkle

1cup brown sugar with 1/2cup chopped nuts

across the top of the batter and bake at 350 for about 45 mins.

Serve hot or cold on its own or with cream or custard

You can substitute ginger or coriander for the vanilla, leave out the nuts or the orange and use other fruits such as apples, plums or peaches instead of rhubarb.

Rhubarb can be grow from stools ( lumps of rhubarb root) or from seed. Most established gardens have a rhubarb patch so a good option to get your patch started is beg some pieces from a kindly gardener. My neighbour Matt very kindly gave me 20 stools this spring .The advantage of getting local rhubarb is that it should be adapted for your local growing conditions . Its too late to put in stools  this year as they need to go in while the plants are dormant but check out the gardens of people you visit for the rest of the year so you know who to hit up for stools next spring.

You can also pick up potted rhubarb in most garden centers and plant them at any time.

Timperly Early and Glaskins Perpetual are the recommended seed varieties and available in most seed merchants . You can sow those all through summer and spring. Start them in seedtrays or small pots.

Rhubarb can tolerate a bit of shade and a bit of damp but dont let it get waterlogged.Prepare the area before hand by removing all the perrenial weeds and put in loads of well rotted manure  before planting.