Glut the first – Rhubarb

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb everywhere and all we do is crumble. Before go any further it’s a veg because we eat the stalk. It also has a large bulbous bottom underground that needs to be fed. It is also often the first of the Glut cook additions –. Its bulbous bottom is critical to its survival and needs to be fed by the large but poisonous (if you eat them) leaves. Having said that it’s not so simple to overwinter -we had a problem with a rat burrowing into the bed and eating the roots. Rhubarb is resilient – we let it grow, harvested less, added a little compost and it’s still going strong.

Getting your glut going

It’s also surprisingly easy to grow from seed. A present of heritage seeds (a cut price advent calendar) has led to a small (ish) container of rhubarb slowly developing. So the glut starts by growing:

•         Try seeds if you are short of cash and contacts – I planted in March in a warm cupboard and waited as the weather warmed for a little sprout– when it started to sprout I planted on and started a year long journey of water, feeding (they seem to like dried banana scrins ground up or a tea of grass clipping where I left clippings in a bucket. Eventually I also mulched the container with grass for fertiliser.) The second year I planted out – after sheltering form the frosts and cold over winter. Now it is growing in a large plastic container recovered from the back of a skip where my son found it – cut down and filled with homemade compost – outside.
•       A shorter cut is look at your local community allotment – there is always a root and someone willing to harvest it
•       Ask a gardener – my recovered plot of about 70 cm by 70 cm is chock full – ready for dividing and splitting. I’ve found it can be done any time of year but remember to water.
•       Always give them a good feed in the spring
•           Leave leaves on during the summer to build up the bottoms.
•          Can work in shady areas and I’m surprised by the success with a container. Important in the very small garden we work in for my son. Fresh fibre for the little one

Getting to the crop

1.       The Grandad method using an old, upturned bucket with no bottom placed over the budding crowns in very early spring – forcing the rhubarb.

•             Cut the stalks to begin with – as the plant gets established you can tug them out.
•           Cut the leaves off and don’t discard. They have a use though. I’ve put them on my veg patch path and they’ve kept weeds under control.
•          The younger softer stalks are great for cooking, the older ones can be processed for relishes and alcohols.
•          If you get a large flower spike and you have used heritage seeds you can let them set and when the seed is ready share it out – although I tend to try and chop them off and let the goodness go into that bulbous bottom bottoms.

What to do with a good glut.

Rhubarb has several uses that I think we all know:

•        Going so well with strawberries (I stew them down with a sweetener of choice; honey or sugar is mine. Then grill strawberries that have been halved. Put rhubarb around it and add a little cream or custard.
•           The standard crumble on stewed rhubarb – add a little ginger if you have some and prebake the crumble for extra crunch.
•          Check out the jam recipe – using the store cupboard find- stem ginger, but normal ginger does as well.
•          Rhubarb cookies work well – see our recipe document.
•          Want something other than jam? Try the rhubarb relish.
•          Compotes work well but you can just freeze and use throughout the winter.

The store cupboard staples – sugar (preserving sugar if you can get it) oats, flour, spices- I keep adding to mine and build them up over time.

There is also a way to make rhubarb gin, vodka and spice it up a little. Simply cut, blanch and add to the spirit of your choice with some sugar and forget about it until Christmas or for a year or so.