When life gives you lemons make lemonade but when it gives you rhubarb, crumble fool!

According to the saying, "when life gives you lemons make lemonade," but if life gave me lemonade I'd be living in a hot sunny place and I wouldn't need to make a drink to aid my misery.  May is my favourite month.  It feels as though anything is possible.  Seeds are planted, there is a mixture of rain and lovely warm days.  Blue sky appears for the first time in months and even the trees celebrate by covering themselves in white or pink blossom.  The only problem with May is that it is a lean month, the purple sprouting broccoli has just finished and nothing else is ready to eat, except rhubarb.  Rhubarb is a native of Siberia and so the horrible weather we've had in early spring doesn't phase it in the slightest.

In my final year at University we had a nice student house with a garden.  We tried to look after it, trimming the grass with scissors and the rhubarb plant flourished.  The landlady was surprised, when they came with lawnmower and gardening tools, "What have you been doing to the rhubarb?" she asked. We thought we were going to be in trouble, "Eating it," we replied nervously.  My memory is that she proclaimed us the best tenants she'd ever had (although my memory might be exaggerating that bit).  Rhubarb is very much like courgettes, the more you pick the fruit the more you get.  Last year I had to  divide my rhubarb and so I now have 3 very productive plants.  

What do you do with all that rhubarb?  Here are a few things I've been doing with mine.

1.  Crumble - When the children were small we called it Gruffalo Crumble.  They claimed that they didn't like rhubarb.

2.  Fool - When it's too warm for crumble add it to whipped cream and eat with ginger biscuits.

3. Rhubarb ripple ice cream - make a custard and stirred stewed rhubarb though while freezing

4. Rhubarb crumble cake - sponge, sweetened rhubarb topped with a crumble mixture and baked

5. Rhubarb muffins

6. Rhubarb Jam

7.  Rhubarb Vodka (http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/rhubarb-vodka-2034)

8. Cleaning pans - Rhubarb is brilliant for cleaning pans.  It's packed full of oxylic acid (especially if you use the leaves, which you mustn't eat), which can even clean off burnt stuff and rust.

9.  Rhubarb and custard biscuits (I use a recipe by Holly Bell from GBBO http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/strawberry_and_custard_85051  She used strawberry jam but I used my rhubarb jam)

10. Rhubarb and Feta Salad  (Recipe from Botanical Baker Blog http://thebotanicalbaker.wordpress.com/recipes/vegetables/rhubarb/roasted-rhubarb-watercress-and-feta-salad/ )

Rhubarb is great for the health.  It's been used as a laxative for years, has enough anti-oxidents to fight cancer, is full of fibre and vitamin C.  It has vitamin K, which helps bones and blood.  It is the only fruit that is suitable for carbohydrate free diets and can lower cholesterol   On the downside eating too much of it can cause kidney stones.  

I haven't yet resorted to trying to sell it or leaving it on doorsteps but I have noticed other people in this town have.