Thursday, January 31, 2008

Rhubarb

RHUBARB, n.  Vegetable essence of stomach ache.

2008 Update:  A vegetable stewed by the simple with strawberries and embittered with its own virtue.  Legend holds that the rhubarb grows wherever the pious are elected and achieve high office.

26 comments:

Jamie Dawn said...

I'm first. It's thundering and lightning here, so I've been up awhile.
I have nothing to say about rhubarb.
Maybe I'll think of something later.

Minka said...

rhubarb? you really are running out of words, aren't you?

rhubarb...bitterness on a stick

your breakfast, I presume :)

Anonymous said...

Agree with Minks :)
my mother forbade it from our house--not that anybody was going to go out and get any

You do know Pia means pious? My parens didn't.

mireille said...

PFFFFFFt. Oh,that's raspberry. Aren't the leaves supposed to be poisonous? xoxo

Jim said...

Rhubarb? your legend reminds me of brouhaha.
I like brouhaha used rather than rhubarb in this context because it doesn't put my favorite pie ingredient in an unfavorable light.

Rhubarb: my favorite vegetable when cooked in a pie or sauce. Strawberries accent it's flavor.

Rhubarb: sometimes used medicinal purposes, its purgative qualities are in its roots, especially the Chinese variety (Rheum palmatum?).

Rhubarb: A word golfers invented to describe the long grasses or other types of plant growth they shoot their ball into [Urban Dictionary definition # 9--others there I won't discuss].

Rhubarb: we can't grow it in the Houston area as our winters are not cold enough. When I travel to the midwest I generally 'rustle' some rhubarb. Occasionally I have to buy some to bring back home with me.
..

Unknown said...

doesn't grow here, but ate it once, a long time ago, in Kashmir, when Led Zeppelin had nothing to do with it

how are you doing mireille?

mnfxmit: if its mink, fix it

Anonymous said...

Good survival food with a plastic baggie filled with sugar (or jello powder if no sugar was swiped from the kitchen) when your a kid running wild in the alleys of my neighborhood. Raspberries and crab apples were also up for grabs. Anything to avoid going inside.

Anonymous said...

There was a huge RHUBARB patch in a field across from my grandmother's house. My friends and I would go and grab rhubarb stalks, run them under the water faucet -- wonder aloud if we'd cut them far enough from the root and leaf to not kill ourselves -- then suck on them and watch each other make "sour" faces. Fun stuff.

Anonymous said...

RHUBARB: the name RuPaul really wanted.

Anonymous said...

Love rhubarb pie, or strawberry rhubarb pie. Doesn't grow here either, Karma : (

Anonymous said...

rhubarb - nature's x-lax. raises quite a ruckus in the underworld.

Similar at youth to burdock. If you put that stuff into your pie by mistake, you'll have quite a mess.

Ariel the Thief said...

Yay picture!

Rhubarb sounds like an Arabian swear-word. "You sign the contact or your baby daughter will sleep with the rhubarb tonight."

TLP said...

By itself it makes you feel as if you scoured all of the enamel off your teeth.

Pretty picture.

The Old Mule said...

rhubarb: a bitter breakfast.

tsduff said...

Warmed strawberry rhubarb pie a la mode: the best breakfast in the world.

The OE said...

Rhubarb: The way of the newest warrior in Streetfighter

Cooper said...

I was born in Vermont, moved back there in between jaunts in Australia. In back of garages and barns were these things little kids, like four years old, would always eat....I swear I loved that stuff picked out of the back of those old barns and garages. It did make us sick but it is so long ago I don't remember it much.

I can't say anything bad about it but I rarely see it in Maryland and never saw it in NY. Not sure if it grows behind The White House.

Unknown said...

I have to wonder how anyone ever figured out that making a pie with rhubarb would be good. Desperation maybe?

Nessa said...

Rhubarb: To feel sorry for Barbara.

Minka said...

Einen fröhlichen Hasen-Freitag, sleepy head!

TLP said...

Rabbit rabbit dawg dawg. Up and at'em.

tsduff said...

Rabbit Rabbit ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR! Du bist einen sleepy dawg.

Doug The Una said...

Stay safe, JD and enjoy the weather.

Yep, Minka, the gleanings are getting thin and bitter. And, you're right, it may be my favorite vegetable after baby ears.

Pia, that's a funny story.

Mireille, yes but I find they're rarely fatal.

Jim, I'm with you on the pie and no need to mess around with strawberries.

Karma, Led Zeppelin isn't eternal?

Jenn, crabapples are also excellent anti-girl ballistics.

Exactly, Quilly. Stuck between inedible roots and poisonous leaves, they're the fruit of childhood.

Amoeba, that's funny.

Weirsdo, there is no plebeian Weirsdo but I'm surprised. I thought it grew in Georgia.

Sauerkraut, you are funny.

You too, Ariel, but we've known that. Do you think "Rhubarb you" is a pious oath in Iraq?

TLP, it has that effect, too.

Mule, you and Minka seem to be thinking along similar lines.

Darn right, Actonbell. There's only one thing can revive ago, and that's a piece of Rhubarb pie. Serve it up, nice and hot, maybe things aren't as bad as you thought. Mom's little baby loves Rhubarb rhubarb, Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie! I can do the powdermilk biscuits ad, too.

Terry, keep the doggone strawberries.

OE, I have no idea what you're saying right now. You're 23 aren't you?

Cooper, that's a nice memory. You were so wholesome!

Lily, I've had that thought about smoking, too.

Haha, Nessa. You win pun of the day honors.

Rabbit Rabbit, A-bell.

Und herzlichen glückwünschen im Februar, Trivia tarryer!

Rabbit, rabbit, TLP! Huh?

Caw, Terry.

Anonymous said...

Doug -- I make an incredible rhubarb pie -- sans strawberries. In fact, except for my sister's killer strawberry-rhubarb jam, I think strawberries are much too mamby-pamby to hang out with rhubarb.

Anonymous said...

Maybe so. I've just never seen it on a menu down here. . . .

Doug The Una said...

Bless you, Quilly. I agree.

Weirsdo, I blame the southern sweet tooth. In Atlanta, Strawberry-rhubarb was the closest I could get and that's just not how I was raised.