one of the first fruity harvest in european gardens is actually no fruit, it’s a vegetable! but hey, rhubarb is the very first opportunity to prepare cakes, tart, compote or whatever you have in mind with a fresh sweet-sour flavor as of early spring, so don´t be fussy with categories.

now, in the middle of the summer, you can combine the rhubarb with many fruits. one of the best companies are strawberries, in jam for example or also as a shrub … something very new i tried out this year for the very first time immediately after discovering it. the post will follow very soon. and all of you, who never heard about shrub, you won’t be disappointed …

while i have the impression there is an endless amount of possible ways what to do with rhubarb, the rhubarb is one of the very old, traditional vegetables (not easy not to write fruit), which, and this is really remarkable, is available also in supermarkets only during its season from april/may until july/august. so it seems to be one of the rare real seasonal and regional things we still have. i love it. rhubarb time is spring and summer. basta. no rhubarb for christmas.

in addition it is the most carefree vegetable you can imagine. buy a rhubarb plant or ask friends or neighbors for an offshoot, plant and start to harvest after two years. then the rhubarb will sprout in early spring and you can start to cut off some stalks as often as you like until end of july. now you allow the rhubarb plant to recover. end of autumn/ beginning of winter the leaves and stalks will die back. and next spring the circle will start again. and you have to do absolutely nothing.

there are different types of rhubarb, some more green and some more red, but all of them are excellent. our rhubarb plant is a cutting of the rhubarb my grandma already had in her garden, very red, very aromatic and the most important plant in our garden, because of remembering my grandma very often during its season. and this despite i really hated rhubarb for many years since my childhood when i was used to eat it raw, dipped into some sugar before every bite.

but now, enjoy gardening and create good things with rhubarb!