Rhubarb

We picked another 5 stalks on Sunday - it's been chopped and frozen. The missus wants to make rhubarb wine.

We had another break in the rain yesterday so I popped down the garden to try and do something with some weedy, unhealthy looking rhubarb behind the greenhouse. I can't remember where I got that rhubarb from, but I've had it a few years now.

It was in pots for a year or two, but was drying out quickly, so I stuck it in some unused ground behind the greenhouse. It hasn't done well there, and looked pretty unhealthy.

We picked a couple of stalks - the biggest one was tough and woody, the smaller one was whitish and floppy. The normal rhubarb is several time thicker and much longer, as shown in the photos.

Yesterday I dug the crowns up. I had originally planted 7 crowns, but there were now just 4. The roots looked quite strong and healthy, but a couple seemed "overcrowded" and clumpy, so I have split the crowns.

I had a whole sack of "spent" compost - ordinary multi-purpose compost that I had started seeds in in the greenhouse, but no longer used after seeds had failed or seedlings had been potted on and some of the compost had dropped off during the potting on. I dug this into the small rhubarb bed behind the greenhouse. I expect there are still some active seeds in that compost, and I might well find a tomato or cabbage sprouting up eventually, but should be easily removed.

I also dug in a sack of Croypost - it's a bit rough and heavy, "marketed" as a "soil improver" rather than a compost. Hopefully the combination will help the rhubarb recover and thrive, but it could equally kill it all off.

The 7 crowns were then replanted. Each one is in a slight mound. I can add more compost / manure or something around all the crowns later without burying them. I'll try and get hold of some well rotted manure this summer.

First Rhubarb This Year

Our first rhubarb this year, picked on 2nd April. Had it with custard. Nom nom nom!

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

Having sorted the chest freezer out, decided it was time to crack on and use up some of the fruit. Rhubarb and ginger jam sounded good to me!

2lb rhubarb, chopped

2lb sugar

juice of 2 lemons

40g ginger

Makes 3 jars.

OK, so I've mixed Imperial and metric measurements. I'm useless with metric measurements. We found some frozen ginger in Sainsburys, and it's conveniently squished into 20g blocks, so used two of those, and it's easier to simply use the known metric weights than try and convert them.

Anyway, to make the jam, we put the chopped rhubarb and the sugar into a bowl and left it overnight for the rhubarb juices to absorb the sugar. All the recipes we looked at said to do this, but some for 2 hours, some for 24 hours. I decided overnight was enough, and gave it a stir before bed. I gave it another stir first thing in the morning, by which time, the rhubarb was in a lovely sugary syrup.

I then put some jam jars in the dishwasher and when that finished, put them in the oven at gas mark 1 to keep them hot - putting hot jam into a cold jam jar isn't a good idea (apparently!).

I then put the jam on the heat, bringing it to a boil. I added the ginger and lemon juice while it was heating up. I haven't yet found out how much juice is in one lemon, so I just poured a few tablespoons of Jif lemon juice in.

After about 20 minutes, I tested if it had reached the setting point by dropping a small blob of jam onto a cold saucer and testing if it wrinkled when pushed. It didn't seem to wrinkle easily, so kept the jam on the gas a bit longer. I tested again, but still wasn't sure, so I took a chance and stopped the boiling, and poured the jam into the hot jam jars and put the lids on.

When it had cooled down, I tried the jam - it was a bit too thick, but ok. Maybe too much lemon juice? It wasn't as gingery as I'd hoped for, so might double the ginger next time.

Rain at last!

We've just had a week of badly needed rain. As I really only have potatoes, onions and sweetcorn on the allotment, and they only need watering, I haven't been up there for a week. However, I will go up there this week and pick all the redcurrants and gooseberries.

Fruit at home is doing well. I've picked about a pound of raspberries or loganberries per day from the garden - I have several pounds of each in the freezer, ready for making jam. The gooseberry jam at home has gone. I'll be making some more this week, along with either raspberry jam or loganberry jam.

The rhubarb crowns I split seem to be doing well. 3 of the crowns in the ground have new shoots, along with the one in the bucket. The other 3 are showing no signs of life at the moment. The big old crown in the old rhubarb bed is still doing well - it looks like that needs splitting into 3 crowns this winter.

I've picked some of the small Iceberg lettuces at home. Not sure if they were Mini Green or Little Gem, but they were good.

The seeds I sowed just over a week ago are doing fine - loads of seedlings showing, especially PSB. Hopefully will have time to build a frame and set up some netting for them this time. I'd rather feed me than the pigeons!

Rhubarb

All the crowns in pots seem to have died, except one, which was very large with loads of small stems. I felt that if I left it as it was much longer, it too would die, so I decided to split and plant it today.

When I emptied the bucket, the soil was very dry, despite frequent watering. That could explain the poor growth. As I rubbed the soil away, I found loads of roots and mini-crowns. I split the whole lump into 7 crowns. The first 6 all had a small single stem growing. The 7th (and largest) didn't have any stems growing.

I dug over part of the bed behind the greenhouse where the buckets have stood for a long time. The bed has been sheeted over, so mostly weed free. The soil was quite moist. I planted out the first 6 crowns out about 18" apart - that might be too close for the long term, but it's fine for the rest of this year and a smaller area means less weeding. If they grow well, they can be moved apart early next year. The 7th crown (with no stems) was put back in the bucket for the time being with fresh compost. I'll keep it well watered so it doesn't dry out!!