Beautiful Rhubarb

Rhubarb is one of my favorite foods.  Maybe this is because rhubarb is the first thing I can make a pie out of in the spring.  (I love to make and eat pies).  Maybe it is because by the time rhubarb can be harvested, we are craving fresh food, and the zingy flavor of rhubarb hits us just right.  Rhubarb gives us a fresh infusion of vitamins and minerals, which we all need after a long winter.  According www.organicfacts.net, rhubarb contains lots of fiber, vitamin K, vitamin C, plus antioxidants.  The stalks of the rhubarb plant are the edible part, but the leaves can actually be toxic due to the amount of oxalic acid in the leaves.  So unlike a lot of plants, we cannot eat the leafy parts.  The stalks are pretty sour-tasting if eaten raw, though I used to eat them raw when I was a kid, and the younger the stalk, the less sour the taste.  Now I prefer to bake the rhubarb (mixed with some sugar and flour) either in a pie, or as rhubarb crisp.  Strawberries are a common fruit to add with rhubarb because they are sweeter, and I do like to add strawberries to a rhubarb crisp sometimes.  (Plus they add pretty red color).  But my favorite way to eat rhubarb is in a straight-rhubarb pie.  I will include the recipe for the rhubarb pie filling in a future post.   To me, rhubarb is so rejuvenating and energizing, and I love the tender green-pink color of the rhubarb when it is baked.  My husband and kids also love rhubarb pie.  We look forward to this every year.