Rhubarb Incident

Son1 made a wonderful Rhubarb/Mixed Berry pie on Saturday. It was delicious from what I've been told. It wasn't gluten free... so none for me!

Vet2Be thought it was soooooo good that he had about 1/3 of the pie. Big mistake!

He hadn't had very much to drink on Sunday, and with all the rhubarb in that pie, it made him a little sick. While we were out milking he felt a little weak and had to sit down. He felt a little light headed. And he felt some odd sensations in his throat. We weren't sure what was going on, maybe he was getting sick again.

But then we remembered just how much pie he had eaten!

I knew that the leaves of the rhubarb plant aren't edible. I trimmed those off when I froze the rhubarb. But after reading more about rhubarb we found that the leaves should be trimmed off immediately.

Tuck that piece of information away for future reference! It would have been very easy to trim the leaves while we were harvesting the rhubarb!

Here's a link that Hubby found for rhubarb: The Rhubarb Compendium If you like chemistry and science, this is a great page because it goes into some of the chemical processes that occur when you eat oxalic acid.

Without going into the chemistry behind what happens with the body and oxalic acid, I can tell you that Hubby decided that Vet2Be had better drink a whole lot of lemonade (we make it with Real Lemon juice) because the citric acid in the lemon juice would somehow combine with the calcium in the body instead of the oxalic acid combining with the calcium. I don't get it! I'm not a chemist.

I asked if it would be better if we added some citric acid to the lemonade. We always have citric acid around here. I use it in cheesemaking, Hubby uses it in some of his processes.

I added 1 teaspoon of citric acid to a gallon of lemonade.... wow! That tastes great!  Hubby had Vet2Be drink about 32 ounces of Lemon-ade and he felt better within 30 minutes.

I don't know if this would be considered a cure for too much rhubarb or too much oxalic acid, but it helped Vet2Be. And we love the new taste of the lemonade with citric acid added!

It also reminded me how much I love being married to a chemist. I'm not sure even the doctors would have been able to come up with something as simple as lemonade!

Freecycle Rhubarb

On Saturday I got a call from someone on Freecycle (www.freecycle.org). They had rhubarb in their yard that they didn't want to harvest. (If you haven't heard about Freecycle, it is a network made up of almost 5,000 groups in different areas in the US. If you have something you don't want you post it on Freecycle, and someone in your area who does want it will respond, come by, and pick it up.)

Son1 not only loves raspberry-rhubarb pie, he loves to make it!

I grabbed Vet2Be and his best friend, Taco, and headed over to the next town to harvest the rhubarb.

We ended up with 4 buckets full of stalks and leaves. I sent two buckets with Taco because his mom, Sheepy, preserves pretty much anything, but she hadn't ever done rhubarb. She's always up to trying something new, too. She's one of those down-to-earth, great friends that I have learned so much from.

The rhubarb wasn't quite ripe according to the pictures I found on the internet. But the house was about 20 minutes away from where we live so I decided to harvest it anyway and see what happens when we do the cooking later on.

Here's what I found on the internet about harvesting rhubarb. Harvest late spring through the end of summer. Take a stem near the base, twist and pull gently until it separates from the plant. We used a knife to cut ours, but the source on the internet says that gently twisting and pulling will invigorate the roots. (Wikihow)

My two buckets of rhubarb. It took Vet2Be, Taco, and I about 10 minutes to cut 4 buckets full of rhubarb.

Leaves trimmed, stalks washed, sitting in my farm sink. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid and are poisonous, throw them in the garbage. 

Cut into 1" pieces.

Packaged and sealed. I put about 3 cups of cut rhubarb into each bag. Then labeled them and tossed them in the freezer. Son1's recipe calls for 2 cups of rhubarb in a pie. I was able to put 11 packages of rhubarb in the freezer.

I haven't preserved as much food as Sheepy has, but I've done some over the years. This was the fastest, easiest preserving I have ever done. I think it took me about 2 hours total, and that included driving 20 minutes away to get the rhubarb.

If you have a really old recipe book, you will notice that there are recipes that call for 'pie-plant'. That's the old name for rhubarb.

Here is Son1's recipe for Raspberry-Rhubarb Pie. Sometimes he uses frozen mixed berries instead of raspberries.

Crust
This is Grandma T's Best Pie Crust recipe. I've been using it for years. Amounts in parenthesis are for a bigger batch of dough. I'd much rather have a little extra than not enough, so I usually use the larger recipe

• 2 1/2 cups flour (3 1/4 cups)
• 1/2 teasp salt (3/4 teasp)
• 1 cup shortening or lard (1 1/2 cup)
• 1 beaten egg (1 beaten egg)
• 1/4 cup liquid--milk or water (1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons)
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar (1 1/2 Tablespoons vinegar)
• 1/4 cup sugar - optional (1/3 cup sugar)

Directions

1. Mix flour, salt, and shortening with a pastry blender until crumbly.
2. Mix liquids well in another bowl.
3. Make a well in the flour mixture and add liquid.
4. Mix until dough is moist.
5. Divide dough into two balls (one for the bottom and one for the top).

Filling

• 3 cups rhubarb cut into 1" pieces
• 3 cups raspberries (frozen or fresh)
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl until combined.
2. Add rhubarb and mix well. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.
3. Mix in the raspberries (or mixed berries).

Pour the filling into a 9" prepared pie crust, dot with butter. Cover with the top crust.

Bake at 450˚F for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 325˚F for 30 more minutes or until the pie is golden brown. It will often take longer if the fruit is frozen when put into the pie shell.

I found out last night that I have a neighbor who has lots of rhubarb and would love to share, so next week I'll be harvesting some more! Yay!

And he said that if I wanted a plant he would be happy to divide one and let me plant it in my yard. Sweet! Well.... sour really. Either way, Son1 will be excited to have more rhubarb in the freezer and a rhubarb plant in our own garden!

If you have a recipe for raspberry-rhubarb jam, send it along, I'd love to try it. The other rhubarb recipe I have heard is yummy is rhubarb-applesauce!