- Rhubarb is easy to grow and provides abundant food in early spring.
- The leaves of the rhubarb are not suitable to eat – take the stalks and toss the rest into the compost (or look at #10).
- Don’t be alarmed about toxicity though – you’d have to eat about 5 kg of them to get really sick)
- Rhubarb stalks have many B vitamins.
- If you have the red rhubarb, you are also getting vitamin A
- Since rhubarb is so tart, it didn’t gain popularity as a food until the 17th century when sugar began more widely, and affordably, available.
- Thankfully rhubarb freezes well since each plant produces so many stalks. Chop them up and freeze them raw, or stew then freeze it.
- 2/3 cup of rhubarb provides 2 g of fibre and only 20 calories
- Six year old roots are harvested and used for medicinal purposes. In small doses, as a digestive tonic and in large doses as a mild laxative.
- Aphids a problem? Try boiling up a few pounds of rhubarb leaves in water. Once cooled off you can use as a spray.
For everything Rhubarb, check out http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/
