Rhubarb aka Pie Plant

Outside it’s cool and rainy. Inside, the oven is 400 degrees F and the first cobbler of the season is bubbling away.

For the past couple of weeks, every time I pass the rhubarb plants I’ve been like the witch eyeing up Hansel and Gretel: fat enough to eat yet? Today the answer was “yes!”

Recently I found out that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s misadventure with pie-making in “The First Four Years” involved rhubarb. In the book, Laura calls it “pie plant,” but it’s rhubarb. If you remember back to the story, Laura–a new wife–is cooking for the threshing crew, and forgets to add sugar to the pie. Hello, sour.

If you’d like to check out my favorite rhubarb cobbler recipe, it’s in one of my old blog posts: https://homespunlife.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/rhubarb-how-i-love-thee/

And, since there’s no sun for a photo today, I’ll share a photo I took of a cobbler from seasons past.

• tess •