Rhubarb!

Our rhubarb has plans for world domination. Like most plants in our garden, it is ignored most of the time. Maybe this is why it's so big - it's craving attention. We took 2 chunks out of the crown last year for friends - you'd never know.

I love the look of the rhubarb - big leaves, interesting stems, a good bit of green structure. It's like a Gunnera for small gardens. But I don't like the taste of it. Hubby does, but bless him he's only 1 man with a mountain of rhubarb to climb... eat... whatever.

Psst... want any rhubarb?

We were in the Farmshop the other week, idly mentioning that the rhubarb's 2013 campaign was well underway (none of this "don't harvest when there's an R in the month" stuff for us) & the fruit & veg lady said:

"If you have any spare, we'll take it."

"Really?!"

"Absolutely! We're always looking for local suppliers."

"What? But we grow it in our garden!?!"

"Fine with us!"

How odd, we thought. Schurely sche can't be scherious.

A couple of weeks later we checked again, partly cos the rhubarb was now trying to push down the new fence (it shall not be contained!). And the shop staff were still keen.

So this Friday morning, I harvested just under a quarter of the stems from the plant & shipped them to the shop on my way to work.

One quarter gone - tis but a scratch
(the sorrel bottom right is picking up too)

2 kilos once the leaves are off

Knock, knock

The guy stocking up outside the shop was a little surprised to see me rock up with an armful of rhubarb, but once I'd explained the deal, he looked it over & was really keen:

"Ooh it's really good quality!"

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, really nice."

"Cool! Glad you like it."

He then found a snail on the underside of one of the leaves...

"Yeah, there might be a few of them..."

"No problem"

& so ensued a short conversation on snail species identification & edibility...

We're (sort of) famous!

On the weekend we were back at the Farmshop & there by the door was a sign saying "Homegrown Rhubarb". That's us!

Mind, not all the rhubarb in the box is ours - some of it was a bit green in the stem, & I definitely didn't pick any green stems. To be fair, as soon as they saw me they 'fessed - they'd put some additional rhubarb into the same box, sourced from the nurseries in the next village. Still local, but a bit cheeky, given the 'homegrown' label.

Fruit & veg lady was very enthusiastic about ours tho':

"It was lovely. Most of it sold really quickly.
If you have any more, we'll happily take it."

How cool is that! & when we got to the till, we got some cash off our bill to the tune of the trade-in price of 2kg of rhubarb. Yay!

So, bartering is back! It all went so well we'll doubtless do it again. Our compost bin won't see much rhubarb mulch this year, which seems much less of a waste. Plus, we now also have an alternative outlet for our annual gooseberry glut - bonus! Jury's still out on the snails tho' - I'm not sure the region is quite ready for fresh Northumbrian Wallfish.

p.s. If you know me in real life & want any free rhubarb or gooseberries, shout up before we ship it all off to the Farmshop.