Rhubarb!

The woman who lived in our house before us was quite a gardener.  On the day we closed, she took me around the backyard and showed me some of her plants, including a large rhubarb plant and an elderberry bush.  The elderberry bush was hit hard by the ice storm of 2014, and we need to trim it way back, but it is still producing fruit, which I "let" the birds have (although I do keep reading about all the wonderful nutrients found in elderberries so maybe this year I shall try to snag some berries before the birds eat them all).

I had great plans for the rhubarb, most of which involved a wonderful recipe I have for rhubarb bread pudding, but each year the rhubarb would come and go and I would do nothing [hangs head].  But not this year!

We all went out to the yard yesterday afternoon and I had my gardening gloves with me and decided it was time to pick rhubarb!

Here is what I picked.  Not bad for what is just one plant!

Owen is photobombing my rhubarb picture:

And here is the plant after I had done the picking -- still a lot left!  Owen always called this plant "Mommy's lettuce."

And here's what I picked before I cut off the poisonous leaves.  I decided to do that outside, since Plum eats any greens he can find, and I didn't want to have to rush to the vet...

Owen was a big helper while making the rhubarb.  He got Very Mad when I took the rhubarb to cook it, but then I gave him the trimmed off ends to play with and he sat there for a good 40 minutes putting them in the cup and then the pot and stirring and whatnot.

Here's the rhubarb before I cooked it.  7 cups!  I decided I would make it into a rhubarb sauce like my mother always does, since I didn't have the ingredients for the bread pudding.

And here is the finished product, after chilling in the fridge overnight.  I had a bowl for breakfast and it was delicious!  Owen wouldn't try any...yet.