When are Flowers Undesirable?

When they are on top of rhubarb this early in the spring!

Some of these flowers are over 3 feet tall. Rhubarb should not flower and set seed until mid summer. This unwanted flowering is called "bolting" and it is not a good thing.

Most of the rhubarb stalks are hollow so I think it's time to rejuvenate this very old unknown cultivar. It came from a friend's family garden. His parents are in their 80's and it probably came from their parents.

Rhubarb crowns are not easy to dig out so I called upon DH for this job. I was too tired from the 9 hours I had already spent digging and hauling wheelbarrow loads of weeds (11 heavy loads to be exact). He had them out in the time it took me to haul two more loads of leaves and stalks away. Oh, the brute strength of that man of mine.

I rinsed off the mess to see what I had. I've never divided rhubarb before and really had no idea of the proper way to do it.

Hmmm...even after cleaning it off, I still didin't know what to do, so I just hacked off a smaller piece that had some eyes and layed it about 5 inches into the hole. I brought in some top soil from that mountain of dirt (that's messing up my garden longview pictures) to cover it.


I threw away all the rest.

Looks pretty bare now doesn't it? I think it will take a couple of years before it produces edible stalks. That's fine because I don't use it much anyway. DH hates it. I've given up trying to sneak it into different dishes because he always knows what it is.
I, however, do enjoy it. So now and then I make something.


Today I found enough stalks that were not hollow to make these muffins that Sandy posted.

I can't believe that after all the work I did yesterday, I still felt like making muffins. It felt like the old me coming back!

These muffins make me feel like I am eating health food. They are not sweet at all. There is only 1/2 cup of brown sugar in the recipe and it makes 2 dozen. I thought the bits of rhubarb might be too tangy with so little sugar, but they really gave just the right bit of punch to each bite. I will be taking these to work. They are all wrapped in twos and frozen for when I want them.

Thanks, Sandy, for sharing your recipe.

Boy, last night I just couldn't fall asleep. I watched "Who Will be the Next FoodTV Star" until 11:00 p.m., then I tossed and turned until nearly 1:00 a.m. The alarm jarred me awake at 5:00 a.m. Now I must shower and do the get-ready-for-work routine.

Have a great Monday! I hope I can stay awake.