I'll take it, rhubarb pies are good...

I always freeze some (cooked) to have in January. It reminds me of Spring.

I have never had it. I would definitely try it.

Love it, and I never combine with strawberries. It's rhubarb and rhubarb alone ;0)

We had a patch when I was growing up, and sis and I used to sneak the sugar bowl outside, cut stalks, dip in the sugar and enjoy. What I can't remember is why we felt the need to be sneaky. It's not like anyone cared if we had sugar back then, and my Mom didn't really bake, can or freeze to have had designs on the stalks herself, so maybe that just made it more fun?

I make a rhubarb wine that will knock you socks off!

Love it. My Mom made it in pies and as a sauce like applesauce. Tastes great!

I like it too. As far as rhubarb pies go, I prefer all rhubarb, and definitely not a custard rhubarb pie.

We kids used to eat the sticks raw too but dip them in salt instead of sugar. Aren't the leaves poisonous tho? Mom's clump of rhubarb was on the edge of the veggie garden. I can see it plainly....good memories.

I used to like to eat it raw, just like morz, but don't like it cooked at all. I don't like slimy things and rhubarb does get slimy when cooked. ;-)

Schoolhouse, yes....the leaves are toxic.

I love it....I have a recipe around here some where (actually) lots of them) but my favorite is rhubarb barbs

Love it. I make pie, muffins, rhubarb crisp, and rhubarb cake and of course stewed.

I like it virgin....not mixed with any other fruit.

When I was a kid at home, Mother made rhubarb pie, We all loved it. It was even better with thick cream, whipped cream, or a dollop of ice-cream on top.

Rhubarb is an interesting plant. Only the stalk is edible; the rest of the plant is poisonous, especially the leaves.

I love rhubarb pie, but keep the strawberries out of it! (Have a splendid recipe for strawberry pie, so save them for that, lol)

Leaves = toxic, for sure. 60 years ago, my father bought two baby goats (for milk for baby sister who was allergic to cow's milk. Turned out both goats were male, hah. Kept them as pets and to "mow" the back forty. Goats will eat ANYthing. They got into the rhubarb patch, ate the leaves - survived, but had the most disgusting stringy white vomit attack. Ah, memories!!

I grew up with rhubarb and really like it. I like tart things. Rhubarb sauce on ice cream is one of my sister's favorite treats. I really like rhubarb bread. It's a versatile item that can be used in a lot of things in a lot of ways. Don't know that I've ever seen anyone really hate it tho. Maybe they don't like it or it might not be a favorite but it's not a hot button from what I've seen. Not like lutefisk or grits! Seems like my area at least it's so common and so many have plants in their yards whether they use it or not. It's easy to grow and a nice enough looking plant.

And yes, leaves are toxic. They're great for killing off weeds tho. Lay them out and they work better than that weed block fabric.

There are some foods I think you had to grow up eating in order to "enjoy" as an adult, among them are rhubarb. Like cynic, we loved rhubarb sauce on ice cream or on bread/toast for breakfast. I dislike strawberries, so I never mix them with rhubarb.

Some other foods you had to grow up eating to enjoy are: lard, pickled herring, sardines, horseradish, sauerkraut.... I enjoy them because they were common foods growing up (farm folks); while hubby (city kid) won't touch them because his mother made hamburgers, grilled cheese or bologna sandwiches, every day of the week. He never ate "real" food until we got married.

I also think it's the stringy texture of rhubarb that some people don't like. And also the stringy texture of coconut that many coconut-haters dislike, not necessarily the flavor. Food textures are a whole different category.

Editing to add: My son-in-law and I will share a can of SPAM or potted meat (much to the disgust of everyone else in the family) when we are together because we both were raised on it. It's fun to share this food folly with him. ;-)

I had a lovely 7-plant rhubarb patch, but used a grass killer around it......well, there it went! So now I have to depend on the generosity of others for my fruit. This past weekend, I made three pies and DD brought over a crumbler. I also make a frozen slush with rhubarb.

DH loves it. I am neutral. I make sauce for him and eat some but it's not a favorite. I like it best in a cobbler with berries.

Grainlady I grew up with your list. (city people) The only thing I still don't care for is the pickled herring. We didn't have Spam but I do remember a lunch meat called "pressed ham". I also love liver pate and liverwurst and even the liver pate in the can. DH grew up with what I refer to as white people food. LOL

DH grew up with what I call plain white people food. Baked stuff with canned cream of something soup, overcooked everything, boiled vegetables, packaged cold cuts instead of from the deli etc. Nothing spicy. I was once invited to dinner for his mom's "famous" chili. It was nothing but pinto beans and macaroni in tomato sauce. Ugh.

watchmelol-

My best friend grew up in Missouri and the "famous" chili you describe is exactly what her mother made and called "chili".

We had a lot of canned meats (even whole canned chickens in large cans like tomato juice comes in) because our refrigerator had about a 12-inche square freezer space (for a family of 6) so we could only keep a small amount in the freezer since we went to the store once a month. I also think it was a post-WWII thing. Before I was born in 1952 they were living in Canada where rationing went on for longer than in the U.S. Once they moved to Kansas in 1951, they kept the cupboard filled with canned food (both home-canned and commercial) because it was available to them for the first time in many years.

A friend shared her rhubarb muffin recipe with me, and it's our very favourite muffin recipe. The cut rhubarb is sprinkled with sugar and left to drain overnight. You then proceed with the recipe. It calls for buttermilk and oatmeal.

My friend loves to use the sweetened rhubarb juice in a cocktail.

Jasdip - would you please share the muffin recipe. Thank you. Never heard of rhubarb juice.

My BBF mentioned just last weekend that someone she knows makes homemade ice cream with rhubarb. I didn't ask how he makes it, chunks or syrup?

Recipe: The Best Rhubarb Muffins

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup quick cooking oats

2 cups leached rhubarb (see below)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup margarine, melted

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

To leach rhubarb: chop 4 cups rhubarb and mix in 1 cup white sugar. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°

Combine buttermilk and oatmeal; set aside.

Combine leached rhubarb, brown sugar, melted margarine and egg. Stir into the oatmeal mixture.

Sift flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Stir into the batter until just moistened.

Spoon into greased 12-cup muffin pan and bake at 400° 5 minutes, reduce heat to 375° and bake 18-20 minutes. Let cool in muffin tin before removing to a rack.

The drained syrup can be used in drinks, if desired :-)

My grandparents used to bring rhubarb when they came to visit. It was was too hot to grow it where we lived. Rhubarb was ok, but we never had a constant supply. I preferred it raw rather than cooked. The cook was always too mushy and the raw was stingy.

I love rhubarb! It grows very well here and I think of it as being so representative of our area. A few summers ago, we went to the west coast (it was the "wet coast" that year) and were miserably cold and wet as we stood in line to enter featured attractions. Then we went to a restaurant that had rhubarb crisp on the menu and a few bites took me back home and our hot, dry summers!

I like rhubarb stewed better than in a pie. A great breakfast fruit.

Some interesting ideas here. I made rhubarb freezer jam recently. I used some as a sauce on ice cream. I love rhubarb pie and cobbler. I've never tried it raw. My late MIL ate it raw with salt. Maybe I would like it with sugar, I have no idea. Feel free to post recipes!

I love and loved Rhubarb when growing up in San Francisco. I think it is almost native to that damp climate. I planted one here and dug it up this year....can no longer tolerate the sugar (diabetic) it takes to cook it with, altho I do remember eating youngish sprouts raw. Only sugar, the real deal, makes it palatable to me, so I hope everyone here enjoys it. Gonna try that muffin recipe in any case!

On several recent trips to my father-in-laws place in Maine we arrived when the raspberries and the rhubarb were ready and my wife decided to try making raspberry/rhubarb pies. I had never had rhubarb and I knew that every part of it was toxic except for the stems, so I was uncertain about trying it. Especially since my wife mas merely mostly-sure that the plant she picked was rhubarb.

I liked the raspberry/rhubarb pies but I liked the raspberry-only pies better.

I got my rhubarb from a friend on Freecycle. I love a good rhubarb custard pie. I had my rhubarb all used up and was wanting more, and since it grows freely, like a weed, I refuse to buy it. I saw some at the market for $4 for 4 thin stalks. Highway robbery! I got more from my friend and I have it chopped, in bags in the freezer.

My rhubarb patch at home is over 14' long. I have two varieties, a red stemmed plant with smaller stalks, and another plant that grows giant green stalks with leaves the size of elephant ears. They are both very good. I tend to mix them for most recipes.

We use rhubarb to make crisp, pie, cake, bread, jam and sauce. Needless to say we love it!

When I harvest my rhubarb I save the leaves and use them as a mulch in my other gardens to smother weeds.

Another tip I have learned is to always cut the seed stalks before they can get established to keep the plants producing more tender stalks.

We harvest ours regularly in the months of May, June, July, and often well into August.

I had copied that rhubarb muffin recipe. Was taking it out to make it. Then noticed something, and wondered if it was an error. The ingredients list calls for 2 cups leached rhubarb. But the instructions call for 4 cups of cut rhubarb. Does the volume of 4 cups go down to 2 after the overnight soak with sugar? Or is it a mistake? Thanks. I know this is an old thread. Jasdip, are you still around?

Love it! I need to come back later and check these recipes! :)

I just can’t try it as an adult. I used to see my moms pies and think they were strawberry, yuck!

You made strawberry rhubarb pie? Where are you? I am on my way. I was excited to see a strawberry rhubarb pie at a local farmers market in So Cal. The lady selling them was Scottish. She said, " If you know this, you grew up somewhere colder than here.". I did. I love it.

Last week I cut out a recipe for rhubarb enhanced water. Wow the rhubarb ice cream sounds good. Maybe I can google it.

I've never had rhubarb, and so I have no idea what it tastes like. It was never common anywhere that I have lived.

LOL terilyn, back in the day we would visit my dad on alert --B52-airbase and get excited to find peach pie--only it was pineapple!! I would choose rhubarb over strawberry every time and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not put strawberries in my rhubarb pie!!! I have never leached rhubarb so have no answer to the question about amounts. I would just cook it, making a sauce if I were going to not use it raw. The volume would definitely decrease when cooking.

We enjoy rhubarb as a standalone or mixed with berries.

I don't worry about the plant being toxic since we don't eat the leaves.

Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, etc., are harvested from toxic plants.

We have a large rhubarb patch that was planted long before we moved here in 1975. I love rhubarb, but dislike eating sugar, so my rhubarb desserts tend to run on the tart side. My favorite is a cake with rhubarb in it.

The rhubarb patch is overrun with nettles at present. This must be the Year of the Nettle, because I'm seeing them everywhere. I need to put on some long garden gloves and get busy pulling.

Rhubarb pie! YUM!!!! My husband likes it when I cook up a bit with a little sugar then reduce it by letting it simmer a lot. He puts it on toast. I'm not a fan of that myself.

LOL!! Debby, your comment about your DH liking rhubarb on toast reminded me of my dad. He always had a bowl of cereal for his weekday breakfast and it was always topped with some sort of fruit.........in spring it was stewed rhubarb :-) I never quite got the appeal.......I like rhubarb - just not on my bowl of cereal!

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.

I have never, ever, tasted rhubarb. I had no idea it was tart until reading this thread just now. I generally don't like tart things, so I guess I won't need to taste rhubarb!

Just took this morning, time for a pie.

Just make a rhubarb custard pie this week. So good.

We had a couple of huge plants in the backyard of my childhood home. Most of us four siblings loved it raw and would break off a ripe stalk and eat it immediately. I doubt that mother ever had enough for a pie or cobbler.

If there is rhubarb pie on the menu, I'll make sure they save me a piece!

One of my fondest memories of my grandma. She had a patch and we would pull a stalk, dip it in sugar and eat away. Last time I saw my grandma was on my wedding day. All the wedding party went to her house. She passed away about 30 minutes before I got home from my honeymoon. I was on my way to see her and got the call.

When is the right time to harvest some? After many attempts I finally have a big plant. It has not reached it's full diameter yet. But was huge last year.

Here is an article on when and how to harvest rhubarb.

Rhubarb picking