Mysterious Maine Farmer Was First With Rhubarb In U.S.

One plant that is in season right now for the picking is the rhubarb. It's a traditional Maine staple food and actually has interesting history as the origins of it's introduction to the new world by one mysterious Maine farmer.

In the history of America, the earliest records of the 'pieplant' shows that one Mainer, name unknown, get themselves a few seeds from Europe in the late 1700s. This grower sold the seeds to those in Massachusetts in the early 1820s and then the food became very popular in markets.

The mighty rhubarb is also known as 'pieplant'. It almost looks like large stalks of celery but with big large, leaves coming out of the stalks. Rhubarb can come in many different colors.

Of course, we can eat the stalks but do not attempt doing anything with the leaves because they are kind of poisonous.

The rhubarb needs cold weather to be dormant for the winter but pops up in the spring, when it is at it's peak for harvesting. Right now in the season also a good time to split your rhubarb to produce more future plants, just be sure to split from an older rhubarb plant.

If you have some rhubarb growing on your property and want to harvest it, simply pull from the base of the stalk and give it a twist. Discard the leaves and don't use the 'woody' stalks or wilted stalks.

For more about rhubarb, including storing your fresh harvest and recipes, check out this page all about the 'pieplant' at the University of Maine Extension site.