Rhubarb dreams

March is when I start thinking about rhubarb.  Checking for the round red nubs that are the first thing to poke up from the ground in the rhubarb patch was a rite of spring in my childhood.  They were about the size of a quarter and everyone wanted to be the first to spot one - just as we wanted to be the first to spot a robin.

 It was amazing to watch the stalks and leaves zoom up out of the ground as the days turned a little warmer.  By the end of April or early May we were harvesting our first fresh fruit* of the year.  Our stash of apples and nuts were long gone and we were relying on dried and canned fruit.

Mom cooked it into a sauce and called it our 'spring tonic'.  She was right about that - rhubarb is full of vitamins A and C, calcium, and potassium.  We would have a dish every day there was some to cut.  Later in the season she would add strawberries.  Rhubarb and strawberries are a happy combination.  The only other way it was served at our house was in Rhubarb Custard pie.

Two rhubarb roots are going in one end of my garden this year.  It is a perennial plant and it takes three years to get fully established.  I might be able to get a few stalks this year, a small harvest the second year.  After that the whole plant can be harvested every year.  Meanwhile I am on the watch for some locally produced stalks.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

3 cups rhubarb, cubed

1 cup sugar

2 Tblsp. flour

1/2 cup light cream (half and half)

2 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1 t vanilla

pastry for two-crust pie

Mix rhubarb with 1/2 c sugar and the flour.  Put into unbaked piecrust.  Mix together 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, cream and vanilla.  Pour over rhubarb.  Cover with top crust.  Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

*Officially Rhubarb is a vegetable, but is used like a fruit. (Tomatoes are officially a fruit, but are used as a vegetable).  I did not make this up.