Punch and Pie…
Earlier today Cindy had mentioned that she was in the process of making a Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler, and I was instantly jealous of the people that would get to partake in such a yummy treat. I love strawberry rhubarb pies and jellies, but they’re hard to come by here unless someone makes them. I bought myself a strawberry rhubarb pie when I went to the farm for the Thanksgiving holiday last year and I didn’t even get to eat it! I still have the jelly I bough, though, so now I just have to find a reason to eat it.
Rhubarb and I have a rocky past, you see. When I was in grade school my brothers and I used to play in the back yard, in our back grass alley, and in the back yards of the neighbors. They were mostly fine with us tramping through their yards–until we tried to “help” one neighbor in particular by ripping up and stomping to pieces what we though were “elephant leaves.” Someone had said, at some time, that “elephant leaves” were weeds, so we thought we were doing a good thing. We were ridding the world of vile weeds in the name of righteousness!!
It turns out that my brothers and I managed to destroy half of my neighbor’s rhubarb garden with the deftness of all children excited by “gardening.” At the time, that neighbor was a little old lady (sadly, I cannot remember her name, but I remember her face… and her kitchen). Rather than screaming and chasing us with pots and pans, she came out on her back porch and stopped short at the stairs. She didn’t say a word to us, and as soon as I saw the redness in her face and the dampness in her eyes, all the smiling and pride I had drained away. I was gonna get it for sure…
The next day, she spoke to my mom and asked her to send me over to help her with her garden. My mom explained to me that we had ruined her rhubarb garden, and did not, as we had believed, rid her yard of evil weeds. So I went over and when she opened the door to the kitchen I could smell her baking. She sent me back into the yard to gather up all the rhubarb remnants in a collander. I did and she showed me how to wash and prepare it. I spent all day helping her bake strawberry rhubarb pies and making jelly. After we finished, she sat me down and gave me a piece of one of the pies we made together and I wanted to cry after tasting it. I felt so bad for destroying her garden! And it was delicious!! She sent me home with some jelly and a pie for my family, and to this day I have never tasted a strawberry rhubarb concoction quite as delicious as the ones she made. I also helped her plant more rhubarb and other vegetables and flowers.
I don’t know what happened to her, or why I stopped going over and visiting her, but I do wish I would have kept in touch with her. I just remember that one day she was gone and a new family lived there. When they ripped up her garden I remember being upset, and I remember trying to plant my own in some kind of tribute, but it never quite worked out.
Maybe I’ll see if Cindy can share her secret strawberry rhubarb cobbler recipe and try and recreate the magic of my childhood…
Oh yeah…. Don’t forget to add your movie to my last post! I’ll post my own choice soon, too!
May 12th, 2008 at 11:12 am
What does Rhubarb taste like?
May 12th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Lovely story, Dawn. I know that feeling of long-standing regret for a hurt you caused when you were young. For me, those are the most haunting regrets.
When I bought this house and moved in, I didn’t know what the plants in back were. I did nothing with them the first year; being extremely lazy at yardwork, I never got around to weeding, so I didn’t mistakenly pull up the strange leafy plants. Hooray for laziness!
If you don’t harvest rhubarb, it sends up a tall, otherworldly stalk with a strange flower at the top. I searched through various books until I could identify the plant as rhubarb.
Then, the second year I knew to pull up a bunch of the stalks and make pie. It’s now a tradition for me to make some sort of rhubarb dessert for Mother’s Day.
I’ll post the cobbler recipe on my site sometime soon. It was a huge hit with my family yesterday — probably in large part because the ratio of strawberry to rhubarb was high, so there was a lot of sweetness with a nice bit of tartness.
Mike, rhubarb flavor is a little like citrus, but very tart. People often combine it with strawberry so the sweet and sour flavors balance. You use only the red stems of the plants, not the green leafy leaves, which are poisonous. The stems are crunchy, and retain their texture pretty well when cooked.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Awesome story. When did you legally change your name from Ramona Quimbly?
I can verify that this was Cindy’s best rhubarb creation… as I ate a majority of it.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I’m just wondering, where can you get Rhubarb, or where can you buy the Strawberry Rhubarb pies in Alabama? Are there any particular stores where you can get it?
Thank You;
Ray