Skip to main content

R is for Rhubarb.....

A favorite of pie lovers near and far, rhubarb is another one of those "edible" plants with "inedible" parts. For this tart and tangy vegetable, it's the leaves that are harmful.

One must be cautious when cooking with this versatile stalk. The entire plant contains oxalic acid in varying degrees, but it is in the leaves that the poison is most concentrated. Consume enough of the leafy material, or cook enough of the leaves in with your stalk and you risk some pretty nasty gastrointestinal symptoms. Consume too much and the dose is lethal.


Rhubarb Delight

Kiss the red stalk gently, 
with sweetness and light.
Stew with fruit quietly,
make tart rhubarb delight.

                                                                                 --- e.a.s. demers


Labels:

Comments

  1. soggy in the cornerApril 22, 2012 at 7:26 AM

    My Aunt used to make raspberry rhubarb pie. I always found it strange that part of a plant could be toxic and the other part okay to eat. We used to eat the stems of wood sorrell in the woods, but the neighbors mother warned us not to eat too much. She was a nurse and I think it was the oxalic acid she was worried about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. e.a.s. demersApril 29, 2012 at 6:46 PM

      I've actually never had rhubarb pie at all... but, I agree that it's strange that one part of the plant is okay to eat while another part is toxic...

      Delete
  2. @amiApril 23, 2012 at 7:55 PM

    I love strawberry rhubarb pie. I haven't had it in ages though.

    {ami}
    http://sundrysumthins.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. e.a.s. demersApril 29, 2012 at 6:49 PM

      I've always wanted to try rhubarb pie, I have friends who love it, but, it wasn't part of our repertoire.

      Delete
  3. SharkbytesApril 24, 2012 at 7:43 AM

    Quite possibly my favorite pie! I'm trying to visit all the A-Z Challenge Blogs in April. My alphabet is at myqualityday.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Share your thoughts!

Popular posts from this blog

A to Z reflections....

Another A to Z challenge comes to an end--- another collection of posts and poetry have been written, another deep breath of relief is released. For my fellow bloggers that survived as well, it's another 'challenge-completed' notch carved into the writing desk. I've come to enjoy my yearly foray into the world of all things alphabetical. This was my third year, though it was only the second year I had a workable theme (which made the challenge substantially easier than the first year I attempted this challenge.) And, though my first year was difficult because my focus was so scattered, I found this year was more  difficult because I lost the enthusiasm that came with the first year excitement----excitement which helped me plug along until the end of the challenge. Year 3 was a success in the sense that I completed the challenge, though, this was the year that almost wasn't---- Somewhere about a third of the way through the challenge, I seriously considered...
27 comments
Read more

B is for Banshee.....

Irish bean sidhe  and Scottish Gaelic bean sith , literally, woman of fairyland. The mythology and legend surrounding the Banshee is a bit mixed. The most readily accepted story is of a hag-like creature wailing the impending death of someone nearby-- most ancient Gaelic families, especially the more well-to-do families, had their own Banshees that attached themselves to the lineage of the family name. I suppose it was a sign of station for a family to be able to claim their own Banshee--- I mean, who needs an exciting/ tongue-wagging-inciting skeleton in your cupboard when you've got a Banshee wailing in your rafters? The origins of the more familiar Banshee may have stemmed from the ancient Keeners-- women who were employed to sing a lament at a funeral. The best Keeners were in high demand to "wail" and "weep" for the great personage who had fallen. The Great families would boast a bean sidhe  or bean sith--  a fairy-woman Keener--and having foresig...
14 comments
Read more

A-Z Reflections, year 4....

A-Z blogging challenge for 2014 has come and gone, seemingly without my realizing it. And, though I fell behind once or twice toward the end, I finished this year's challenge right on time. Really, I can't believe it's already over. I feel like I just finished my post for letter A... Year 4, for this blogger, was a far cry from the tortured state of despondency that was most of  Year 3 -- I'll not mention the irony of this year's focus on death being easier to blog about than last year's foray into supernatural creatures, we'll leave that for my therapy sessions *ahem* As always, A-Z brought with it, not only 26 days of unbridled and far-reaching knowledge (disguised as entertaining and thought-provoking blog-posts), but a chance to connect with new faces while reconnecting with familiar faces--who had perhaps drifted away--from A-Z's past.  I am always amazed by the ingenuity and inspiration that comes from lumping a couple thousand folk...
12 comments
Read more