Home

Advertisement

Previous Entry | Next Entry

Good grief.

  • Apr. 18th, 2008 at 12:08 PM
tambame
I am typing up a list of homemade and home-produced goodies available for sale in the cottage (thanks for the suggestion, Soren!) and realised that I have a metric ton of rhubarb available. I can't eat it fast enough, so I thought that selling it would be a good idea. I went to the Tesco online site to see how much Tesco sell it for so that I can undercut it (we hates Tesco, we does my precious!).

Tesco don't sell fresh rhubarb.

How can that be??? It's slap-bang in season and very, very scrummy. Rhubarb crumble is the ideal way to cheer yourself up after a soggy spring day. How can they not sell it? They sell rhubarb *flavoured* things such as yoghurt, but not the actual stuff itself. The closest they come is a ready-meal dessert affair called "Finest rhubarb and ginger crumble", which I can almost guarantee is much worse than the quickest, cobbled together crumble you could slap together in 10 minutes in your own kitchen.

Mark it up as one more reason to avoid supermarkets with a vengeance.

Rebel! Show your individuality! Eat some rhubarb today! Say "Rhubarb" several times and wonder at how silly a word it is! Pah.

In the absence of any hard information, I will be selling it at a pound for a pound. But may reduce that as it seems a bit expensive...
  • Mood: shocked

Comments

( Leave a comment )
[info]zencuppa wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 11:25 am (UTC)
I used to gnaw on my grandmother's rhubarb, when we stayed at her farm, years and years ago. Thank you for the memory *s.*

Could you send me your recipe for Rhubarb crumble?? I'd love to try it!

And if I was nearby, I'd buy some of that rhubarb from you, but I don't think it would survive a postal trip :-)

Homemade goodies . . .Yummmmm.

And now I've a massive urge to write a song with the words rhubarb and widget in 'em; they are both fun words :-)

| Reply | Thread
[info]keristor wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 01:44 pm (UTC)
There are recipes for rhubarb crumble? I mean, it's basically: chop up the rhubarb, add some sugar, stew until it goes soft[1], put in an oven-proof glass bowl, put crumble[2] on the top, bake in a reasonable oven[3] until done[4]. You can add other things like ginger or other fruits and spices if you like (I like enough ginger to taste). It's one of many things where I never think of having a recipe, it just happens naturally, but the notes below are what I've done.

[1] What my father called "wungles and squa" -- the wungles were the lumps of rhubarb and the squa was the fibrous bits left in the water).

[2] Pre-made crumble mix, crushed biscuits (Graham crackers for instance), or I would make it myself. 4oz flour, 2oz butter, 1oz sugar (substitute as appropriate non-wheat, non-dairy and non-sugar equivalents for people who avoid such things), scaled as appropriate for the amount you're making. Put it all in a bowl, rub it all together until it's an even texture of crumbs. Sprinkle it on top of the fruit, pat it down but not too hard (too hard and it turns into shortcake!).

[3] Gas Mark 4, 350F, 190C. Or thereabouts, roughly half way up the scale. That's for the home-made crumble.

[4] 'Done' is when the crumble on top starts to go brown. About half an hour for home made crumble mix, whatever the packet says for pre-made and until it's warm for biscuit (cookie) crumbs.

[5] Serve with custard, pouring cream, or on its own, to taste. Can be eaten hot, cold or re-heated.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]soren_nyrond wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 11:33 am (UTC)
Annie, for what it's worth, look at rhubarb jams and rhubarb-type chutney -- you might find you can "lose" some of your surplus into kilner jars, and then sell it later in the season, or in early autumn. My f-i-l (rest his soul) had a thing for r.jam.

Bless
| Reply | Thread
[info]grey_lady wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 11:39 am (UTC)
Rhubarb. Ewww.
Sorry, but very definitely and firmly in the other camp on rhubarb. Right up there with Marmite on the 'to be avoided' list. :)
| Reply | Thread
[info]plaid_dragon wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 11:48 am (UTC)
I hate rhubarb and love marmite. Mum is the other way round. I still remember feeling very betrayed when she served up a cold dessert which looked like caramel mousse (which I adore) but turned out to be rhubarb fool.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]aunty_marion wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 04:08 pm (UTC)
Seconding the anti-rhubarb/pro-Marmite sentiments! Dad used to grow rhubarb - we were always sent out after the rag-and-bone-man's horse and cart to collect the horse manure for it. Ew. I think Mum's just started growing it again now, in Swansea. She can eat ALL OF IT, 'cos I don't want ANY!!! When we were kids she used to try and persuade us to eat it by giving us a stalk of rhubarb with a saucer of sugar to dip it into. I think we ate the sugar and avoided the rhubarb...
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]demoneyes wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 09:32 pm (UTC)
Some people are so fussy... :)

Rhubarb - yum (though beware its guitar-wrecking properties)

Marmite - ewwww.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]stevieannie wrote:
Apr. 19th, 2008 07:35 pm (UTC)
*Falls off chair, laughing*

Yeah, I can't stand those fussy people, can you? ;-) I'm with you the whole way on anti-marmite. Yeuch!
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]janewilliams20 wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 12:07 pm (UTC)
I haven't seen any rhubarb in supermarkets for quite a while: but Sainsburys do have it on their online shopping list.

£5 a kilo, on special offer. "Sainsbury's Rhubarb 400g Save £1.00 was £2.99 now £1.99" It's filed under "pineapple and exotic" (????)



| Reply | Thread
[info]smoooom wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 12:29 pm (UTC)
Perhaps you could ask your self How much would I pay for x ammount of ruhbarb, I'd send you mine, but I don't think it's allowed.
| Reply | Thread
[info]bodhibird wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 01:31 pm (UTC)
Scrummy = tasty? To an American speaker, it sounds like a word that should have a negative meaning; we would say "yummy".

I once heard the theory--was it from Peter Sellers, in an interview?--that "rhubarb" is what actors say to make background conversation in a scene. You just keep saying "rhubarb" with different inflections. *g*
| Reply | Thread
[info]keristor wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 01:49 pm (UTC)
'Rhubarb' is a traditional word used for "conversation noises" in theatrical productions, yes. Muttered by a number of people as background noise it does indeed sound like conversation, it has the right combination of sounds (for English, at least). It's become such a tradition that some people have used it as an actual comment about speeches ("It's all rhubarb" -- noises with no content).
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]aunty_marion wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 04:09 pm (UTC)
And if you add in the occasional "Oooh, custard!" it becomes even more conversation-like. I occasionally use "crumble" as well... *g*
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]pbristow wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 09:15 pm (UTC)
"Scrummy" is a contraction of "scrumptious". =:o}
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]telynor wrote:
Apr. 18th, 2008 03:24 pm (UTC)
ew, rhubarb.
| Reply | Thread
[info]tattercoats wrote:
Apr. 19th, 2008 06:01 pm (UTC)
I converted my family to rhubard, though, V thought he hated it - turns out he was remembering school rhubarb. Never enough sugar in it at school. I mean, if you're making a pudding, why stint on the sugar? Anyway, V thought Rhu was the devil's celery / vampire celery or somesuch (can't abide celery) but now we think celery is the devil's rhubarb, and we love the pink stuff. You can chuck it in a cake as well. But I expect you knew that!
| Reply | Thread
( Leave a comment )