How to Use Rhubarb from Your Edible Landscape

Rhubarb is an attractive addition to an edible landscape or in a vegetable garden. This versatile plant has huge leaves and can grow to over 18 inches tall. It is one of the first things to appear in spring and, in the olden days; a rhubarb bed was often combined with asparagus to make a permanent productive bed in your yard or garden that would be the first thing you could harvest each spring.

Edible Landscape Rhubarb Use: Rhubarb Sauce

One of my favorite things is rhubarb sauce, which is similar to a runny jam. Basically you take the rhubarb stalk. Discard the leaves as they are poisonous. Take the stalk and cut them into one inch pieces. Put in just enough water in your sauce pan so that the rhubarb will not scorch, about tablespoon to two cups of raw rhubarb. Set it on the stove top to simmer. The natural moisture in the rhubarb will seep out and the chunks will break into nice little strings. Add sugar to taste and you have rhubarb sauce. Rhubarb sauce is similar to jelly or jam and is great on homemade biscuits or toast or try it over ice cream for something different.

Edible Landscape Rhubarb Use: Rhubarb Cake

Raw rhubarb can be stirred into cake batter to make a rhubarb cake. This cake is usually flavored with brown sugar and is a rich, heavy cake. Instead of frosting, a brown sugar and butter mixture is sprinkled over the batter before baking. The cake's sweet flavor receives a sour punch from the tender rhubarb chunks to create a taste treat you will look forward to every spring.

Edible Landscape Rhubarb Use: Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie

Mix rhubarb with strawberries to get a wonderfully flavored pie. Many people find that rhubarb pie feels a bit slimy in the mouth, but when you mix it with fresh or frozen strawberries, the sweetness of the strawberry is countered by the sour of the rhubarb making a truly wonderful tasting pie.

Edible Landscape Rhubarb Use: Freeze Rhubarb for Later use

Rhubarb stalks can be successfully frozen if you do not have time to process them right away. Just wash and cut them into one inch pieces. Place them in freezer bags and toss them into the freezer. Use them as you would the fresh stalks and best of all, you do not have to defrost them before you use them to make rhubarb sauce.

Rhubarb is easy to grow and has been in the United States since the 1800's. It is too sour to eat by itself, but when it is combined with other things, rhubarb adds a wonderful tangy flavor that will have you coming back for more.