It's that time of year when rhubarb is beginning to appear on the Amish dessert menus. Rhubarb pie, rhubarb pudding, rhubarb cookies, rhubarb cobbler, and oh horrors! even a rhubarb drink they will serve cheerfully with Sunday afternoon popcorn.
I never liked rhubarb, and LV absolutely loathes it. While we were Amish we made a point of politely declining dinner invitations during rhubarb season to make sure we wouldn't be stuck trying to choke down the one food we disliked the most.
Personally I don't think rhubarb was ever meant to be eaten. Since we have left the Amish we have happily been rhubarb free, and are no longer bombarded with rhubarb "treats" made by hopeful cooks sure if we would try their rhubarb creation we would learn to like it. It's nice not having it shoved at us every where we turn. Makes springtime a little more enjoyable.
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Oh my. This is hard to imagine because we love rhubarb! I have 5 huge plants.
ReplyDeleteSo far for me anything that tasted even remotely good with rhubarb would have tasted even better without it. :) Glad you like it though since you have five huge plants.
DeleteMy husband makes what I'd guess you'd call a cobbler that is "almost famous". He uses honey instead of sugar, and adds raisins, mixes in some cubes of home-made bread, tops it with coconut and cinnamon, and bakes it. Really good.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who also despised the stuff, but his aunt made a rhubarb pie which contained only rhubarb and pie crust. He said it was sour enough to turn your face inside out. It sound horrible! (But he did like The Squire's recipe.)
That sounds different from any rhubarb recipes I have heard of. LV would think of it as a double whammy since he also doesn't like raisins. :)
DeleteSour rhubarb pies are the worst!
YUCK !!! I am with you !!! RHUBARB anything .... It looks like PINK celery ...... Not a fan, and happily confess ....... doesn't matter what they try to do with it ..... I don't even like the word !!! Hahahaha ...... Fun reading along with you Maryann xoxo
ReplyDeleteLOL, I'm with you, rhubarb is a word that should not be uttered.
DeleteI grew up in the so-called rhubarb triangle in Yorkshire, the most prolific commercial rhubabrb growing area in the UK and we ate a lot of it. I still love it but think it is best in a jam. I make rhubarb and ginger jam every spring, ready for toast the next winter.
ReplyDeleteHowever.... Grandma C used to make a pergative medcine by mixing it with treacle and bran... it was VILE!
Your Grandma's medicine sounds like one of those that makes you feel better simply by being threatened to have to take it!
DeleteI've never had rhubarb. It sounds like I'm not missing much!
ReplyDeleteThat's right, you're not missing a thing!
DeleteI didn't like it when I realized it is always loaded with sugar and the leaves are poisonous enough to kill a pig. It just didn't appeal to my taste buds.
ReplyDeleteThe only rhubarb I could ever manage to eat was masked with loads of sugar. It is scary to think that the stalks of a poisonous plant are so freely consumed.
DeleteWhen you eat a potato, you're eating the root of a poisonous plant. Potatoes are nightshades...as in "deadly nightshade" relatives...and their leaves are just as poisonous. Ditto tomatoes.
DeleteI won't get into a big nightshade discussion here, but "deadly nightshade" is also known as belladonna and used in herbal medicine as a pain reliever, muscle relaxer, and even a beauty aid. Some people eat tomato leaves, rhubarb leaves on the other hand can be toxic with all the oxalic acid they contain.
DeleteI cannot believe what I am reading. You must march yourself down to Yoder's in Sarasota and have a piece of their strawberry rhubarb pie and free yourself of this misguided opinion!! Just kidding! I feel the same way about coconut!!!
ReplyDeleteAhhh..... but you see, the strawberry pie would be ever so much better if the rhubarb was left out. I have tried strawberry rhubarb pie, so sad wasting strawberries like that! :)
DeleteI like rhubarb/raspberry jam, but am with you on most other applications. There is another springtime 'treat' I loathe, and that's asparagus. It is the most vile tasting thing I have ever tried to eat, and after one notable episode at the dinner table, it was the one food I was permitted to NOT hafta 'just try' each time it showed up.
ReplyDeleteI like asparagus, but The Squire doesn't care for it. There is one of those "funny things kids say" collections that makes the rounds from time to time, where a kid supposedly says it is so awful they named it after "Judas Asparagus".
DeleteThe first time I ate a strawberry-rhubarb pie I thought it was just strawberry pie. I took a big bite and nearly choked when I discovered the rhubarb. I have tried it other times since then and I still don't like it. Not one little bit.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible disappointment to find rhubarb in your strawberry pie!
DeleteI've never eaten rhubarb - it just looked suspect to me (maybe because it's not a common ingredient in the deep South, but I don't think that's it - I really like ingredients used in Indian/Mexican/Italian cooking, so it's not like I'm all that picky.) My Ohio-born husband said, "it's real sour." I don't know that he loathes it, but he's not a fan.
ReplyDeleteYou're not missing out on anything!
DeleteToo funny!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE rhubarb and had to get part of the plants my uncle had (they've been grown just about everywhere in the US since he first planted them) when we bought our house. We now have two HUGE plants in our yard and make sauce, pies and crisp to eat year round. My husband and son love sour things so rhubarb is right up their alley and my daughter and I love it too, even though sweet things are just fine with us.
My great-aunt made a rhubarb pie that I had to get the recipe for - graham cracker crust and meringue topping! YUM! And rhubarb muffins with strussel topping... okay I think I need start baking! LOL!
There are lots of other things I don't like though - coconut is at the top of that list! :)
Clisby - rhubarb is similar is taste to quince and in many recipes you can substitute one for the other.
Lea
Thanks for the heads up about quince, now I know to avoid it too!
DeleteWe used to have a quince bush, but the squirrels and birds always got the fruit ahead of us. I have no idea how it tastes.
DeleteIf rhubarb is sour, does anyone ever pickle it?
I had it for the first time a couple weeks ago, in strawberry rhubarb jam. I liked that.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it.
DeleteMy husband LOVES rhubarb probably as much as you and LV hate it!! I passed an Amish farm today and lo and behold......they had a "Rhubarb" sign!! Hmmm........I wonder why I all of a sudden thought of you!! :)
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with people loving rhubarb, as long as they don't make me eat it. :)
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