We are excited that the inaugural week of the 2016 CSA Season has finally arrived! From this week until the last week of September, we look forward to enjoying this season’s bounty with you.
Our spring garden, including radishes, beets, turnips and Swiss chard, is in place. The chilly, damp spring has ensured a slow start to this season. Happily, the cold nights and late frosts seem to have merely impeded progress, we anticipate harvest of spring crops to begin within two weeks.
Luckily, garden perennials spring forth after every winter season, to welcome warmer days ahead.
Rhubarb, an herbaceous perennial that prefers colder climates, is an old buddy every spring on our farm.
The Romans named rhubarb after the people who lived along Russia’s Volga River. It was a prized medicinal plant which traveled the Silk Road from China to Russia. In Europe, rhubarb fetched a higher price than opium as a valued staple of leading apothecaries.
In 1762, the assassination of Tsar Peter III led to the reign of Russia’s Catherine the Great. Peter’s physician, James Mounsey, fled Russia for his native Scotland. There, he presented the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh with Russian rhubarb seeds.
The British people took an immediate liking to this plant. For the first time in its long history, rhubarb became a food. The British came to refer to rhubarb as “pie-plant.” The desserts of Victorian England were resplendent with rhubarb custards, fools, puddings, cakes and crumbles. Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie became the most famous of these sweets.
Rhubarb held its reign over British desserts through the Second World War. As a hardy perennial, rhubarb remained a fresh crop to be enjoyed through the rations of the war and rebuilding. Perhaps because it was the only treat widely available for so long, rhubarb’s popularity in Britain plummeted post-WWII.
Rhubarb stands poised for comeback, however. Rhubarb’s red color is the result of beneficial antioxidants, such as lycopene (linked to reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, and age-related eye disorders). In addition, rhubarb provides vitamins C and calcium. One cup of diced rhubarb provides half of the daily value of vitamin K recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. It packs a nice nutritional punch into an indulgent dessert.
We hope you enjoy our rhubarb and other perennial herbs in the days to come. They serve as a delicious and healthy harbinger of this season’s bounty to come!