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[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

Robert Walton wrote:
> ....Should the stem be red? 
Most varieties have some red; some are quite red almost all the way up 
to the leaf.  Doesn't matter, not an indicator or readiness, but of variety.
> Do I wait for it to ripen more or is it the
> variety? Next year I'm going to get a few more roots, it tastes good.
>
> Part of moving north is plants like this, it would never grow in
> Florida and I've got no experience with it. Tastes good and is low
> maintenance, so I'm a liking it! 
Even on the coast in VA I couldn't get it to go more than a year or so.  
It's one of my favorites and I missed it.  Used to beg the Harrisonburg 
folks to bring me some when they came to Denbigh to visit.  I especially 
love it on my rolled oats for breakfast, esp good with a plop of sour 
cream, and always can some to use for that very purpose.  Just put 12 
pounds in the dryer today to use for pies next winter; it dries really 
nicely,  takes little space to store (I keep it vacuum packed in gallon 
jar; a gallon jar holds equivilant of about 26-30 pounds of fresh 
rhubarb) and is handy to use that way.  Sometimes drop a spoonful in my 
oats, use it in pies/cobblers/grunts, and I like it just stewed with a 
little honey.
> Anybody have any rhubarb tips,
> especially when to harvest?
>   

Harvest when stalk is about ½" across.  Don't want them to get 
big/tough.  Harvest by getting a decent hold on the stalk and giving it 
a good yank; it will come right loose. 

Keep blossom stalks cut out.  It's a heavy feeder, so give it a good 
dose of compost every year.  They reproduce well from divisions and live 
many, many years.  The patch we ate from 60 years ago in IN is still 
hearty, I noticed last summer. 

Leaves are supposedly toxic (oxalic acid) and should be pitched but I've 
always composted them without difficulty--one of those "if it ain't 
broke" things, as I never heard about the leaf toxicity until I'd been 
composting them for 20 years.  Supposed to be toxic to livestock, too, 
but for many years I had a goat who lived loose around here.  She 
ignored the rhubarb plants until about the first of September, then one 
morning I'd go outside and every smidge of each of 12 plantings was 
eaten right down the the ground, so I don't know whether at some point 
the leaves lose their toxicity or they aren't really all that toxic or 
what....but goat lived to be 17+ years old and died of an injury, not 
any sort of diet-related issue.

So have fun with your rhubarb; it's indeed one of the pleasures of life.

Susan Jane, in Maine