RHUBARB RECIPES

I have an interest in recipes and one of my favorite categories is rhubarb. At my first married home, we had a rhubarb plant, and the neighbors on either side of us helped themselves. I suspect the previous wife hadn't cared. It was a prolific old plant, so it was really all right.

One evening, our neighbor Faye, a dear elderly lady who put up with us for years, appeared at my back door with a scrumptious rhubarb dessert – a kind of rhubarb upside-down cake. It was delicious, and I asked her for the recipe. She said she would give it to me, but she didn't, and I didn't like to beg. But I really wanted that recipe. So one day when my mother was visiting, I mentioned the rhubarb dessert made with a cake mix, marshmallows, and Jell-O. "I have that recipe, Kathy," Mother said, "and I will give it to you." On her next visit, she handed me the recipe for rhubarb cake. If I ever knew how Mother came to have that recipe, I don't remember now. But looking through her recipes, I came across her copy with Sara noted as the source. Sara was her sister-in-law, my Aunt Sara [see photo].

You can see by the contrast in the two recipes that I used mine frequently and should have been more careful with it. Mother probably used hers seldom -- if ever at all.

When we moved to the "big house," I planted a strawberry rhubarb plant and we enjoyed rhubarb desserts in the spring. But then we moved and the rhubarb plant stayed behind. Last year I tried and failed to get a plant to grow here in town (terribly hot in summer and sandy soil). The one on the farm has been slow to set on but is making a comeback. We'll see how it goes.

At my childhood home in Orofino, we had a rhubarb plant out near the alley – a huge old thing with very healthy stalks. My dad loved to pull a stalk, sprinkle it with salt, and eat it raw like it was the most delicious thing he ever tasted. Mother made at least one pot of rhubarb sauce every spring. Recently someone told me that a large stand of rhubarb exists in the Gilbert country not far from the homestead. I'd love to know more about that.

This afternoon I planted daisies I found at Costco in pots I bought at Albertson's. If they survive the hot summer, they might go to Hallie's wedding. If they don't – they won't. Simple as that.