Linda, German-Russians lived in distinct & separate villages in Russia. They brought their 16th century German with them to Russia but as time went on each village developed its own dialect. You'll have a difficult time getting 2 German-Russians from different villages agreeing on what the proper German word for "aunt" is much less rhubarb. When they immigrated to America they tended to congregate by village into certain areas of the US. My village, Norka, practically moved the entire village to Portland, Oregon. Mid-western German-Russians came from different villages & their speech patterns are very different. Texas' German-Russians speak yet a different dialect. Their language is mixed with Russian, Polish, Slav, even some mid-eastern. It's a mess for genealogists & cooks alike. /tricia

Believe it or not, this idea just came up tonight while having a friend over for dinner - he has a garden and is always looking for new idea and strawberry rhubarb pie came up in the conversation and he mentioned rhubarb wine and - well - here you are, LOL, glad I read this tonight. I'll be sending your recipe along to my friend - thanks.

Rhubarb wine is one of my favorites and easiest to make. To begin the process I harvest rhubarb during the season, cut and freeze it in gallon zip lock bags. For my recipe I use twelve pounds of frozen cut into one inch size rhubarb, usually about three gallon bags, a two and a half pound bag of raisins, ten pounds of sugar, and three jugs of water. All is put into a (guessing about a 20 gallon plastic tote) as the rhubarb thaws I begin stirring allowing all to warm not quite to room temp before adding a package of Red Star premere curvee yeast... Prior to adding the yeast i check the liquid if its at my desired "balling"reading. Stirring is done twice a day for about a weeks time, at which time I tip the tote up a couple of inchs on one end and insert a siphon hose down into the other end and begin drawing off the juice into a five gallon carboy. I stop filling at the point in the glass carboy where it begins to round into the top portion to allow for expansion during "working" process. usually I fill a couple more cleaned jugs for topping off after racking the first time... Note at no time was a wine press used or any boiling of water. I use city water from the tap which is prefect for use in my wine making recipes and cleaning of equipment... Most of my fruit wines are made using the same steps... In using rhubarb wine - I usually use it in a mix with other wines because it usually enhances the favor of the wine to which its added without any rhubarb after taste.

Love it! Our family had rhubarb as a sauce over ice cream all the time and it was a favourite childhood treat. We also ate rhubarb raw with or without sugar. I once read that rhubarb makes the best apple pie. I don't know if that's true because I've never had the two side-by-side. I've had rhubarb crisps and enjoyed those a lot.