Rhubarb from Seed: Good, and Good For You

Watching the weather on the 5 o'clock news tonight, I was totally appalled to hear we may be getting 6 inches more snow.  I love snow, I really do, but my town is covered already to that lovely stage where everything is smooth...the weeds are buried, the bumps evened out.  The roads are reasonably clear, too...all is right with the world.  But now, more snow.  *sigh*   So, I am writing about my very favorite springtime event...the coming of the rhubarb.  I love rhubarb, my husband loves rhubarb!  When he was single, I hear (often), one year on his birthday he had seven rhubarb pies made for him by seven ladies.  Now he gets one. 

Rhubarb is usually started nowadays by buying a root division. Seeds are still available but they have the interesting, or annoying, property of being very variable.

When you sow them you will get a variety of plants which you can pick through for the sort you like.  The highly colored crimson stems may be present, but so are green ones.  They taste the same but the color is lovely...and traditionally the colored stems brought more money in the market.

It wasn't used greatly as a stewed treat or pie until into the 19th century. In 1810, "Mr. George Myatts of Deptford, England,... sent his two sons to market with five bunches of rhubarb stalks, of which they could sell only three". By the late 1800s it was accepted and a very good market garden product. 

It was pursued with great fervor as a purgative, however, for hundreds of years before then with a huge amount of effort and money spent on traveling to distant countries looking for the best rhubarb, the elusive "true" rhubarb that was being traded from Russia and China. 

Link: Pantologia. A new (cabinet) cyclopædia, by J.M. Good, O. Gregory, and N. Bosworth assisted by other gentlemen of eminence - 1819  This is a passionate history that conveys the importance placed upon rhubarb as a curative. A story of complexity and adventure; a search for the best laxative...perhaps not movie material but interesting.

Link: Early Canadian Gardening: An 1827 Nursery Catalogue, By Eileen Woodhead  This is a clear history you can follow :-)  A currently available retail book.

Below are some modern rhubarb seed dealers.  Following that are a few articles from the 1800s and some rhubarb ephemera.  Enjoy!

There are few varieties commonly offered anymore. 

Rhubarb

Rheum rhabarbarum

Rhubarb is a garden anchor common around old farm houses.  It is long lived and typically     grown by dividing the plant crowns.  Starting from seed is not difficult but you will need to     plant at least twenty seeds to cull out ones that do not exhibit the desired traits for the         variety.  For the average family, three plants will be enough.                                                

Rhubarb 'Glaskin's Perpetual'

Rheum x hybridumHardy Perennial
Started in heat in late winter Rhubarb 'Glaskins Perpetual' can be harvested lightly the following year. The large, juicy stems are excellent for tarts, pies, jam, and wine. As its name suggests, this reliable rhubarb can be harvested late in the season due to its low oxalic acid content. This easy to grow garden variety will produce some variation in the seedlings ranging from green to pink and even red stemmed plants. Height: 60cm (24"). Spread: 120cm (47").   1 packet (60 seeds)

Victoria Heirloom Rhubarb Seed

Perennial. OP Heirloom. Victoria has been around since 1837, and originated in England. It is reliable, productive, and long lived. It has a gourmet, winey/tart flavor that complements strawberries just perfectly. We can up dozens of jars of strawberry/rhubarb jam and syrup from our Victoria patch every year. It also freezes well, so you can have rhubarb cake in January! Rhubarb is easy to grow from seed. It does not require bottom heat. It prefers cool room temperature to germinate. The plants start small, however, and should not be harvested from until the second year. Folks seem to want their rhubarb red, although we have never noted a taste difference between red and green. Grown from seed the color is variable. If you want red, start extra seeds and select the reddest seedlings. Germinated at 80%.

Old Homestead

This variety has been grown on my family’s farm in Fisher Branch, Manitoba since my great grandparents first settled there. The greenish stems are good for pies and very hardy and long lived! Perennial. Zone 2   Package Qty: 25-50 seeds - Price: $3.00

Strawberry (Pre 1930)

An old extremely rare variety that I obtained from the noted food historian William Woys Weaver. It was part of his grandfather’s collection in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A very nice rhubarb with reddish stalks. In general, seed grown rhubarb is quite variable, but a good number of seedlings should have red stalks like the parent. Rhubarb is very easy to grow from seed and is usually ready to harvest lightly the following year. Perennial. Zone 2 "Not Available for 2014" Package Qty: 25-50 seeds Price: $3.00

VictoriaExcellent cooking quality in this early, abundant producer.

Victoria is well-adapted to most regions and is widely grown commercially. The large, tender, rosy-red stalks gradually turn to pink and then solid green towards the tip. Sweeter and milder than other varieties. Grows best in Zones 2-8. Avg. 31,300 seeds/lb. Packet: 100 seeds.

Now, here are the varieties from the 1865 - The Field and Garden Vegetables of America! 
We used to be more serious about our rhubarb!

 Rhubarb was a very useful and effective cathartic, as the period literature called it, and much valued.  Basically a good laxative, rhubarb is well tolerated by people, including children, so it was used in many concoctions.

Here are some recipes from A Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts, and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades, Including Medicine, Pharmacy, and Domestic Economy: Designed as a Comprehensive Supplement to the Pharmacopoeias, and General Book of Reference for the Manufacturer, Tradesman, Amateur, and Heads of Families. 1856

Rhubarb is the earliest "fruit" and it was looked forward to by people craving fresh produce after a long winter.  I called it a fruit because in the United States it was classified as such, letting it be imported with less tariff than vegetables.

Me, I like it baked in the oven until "stewed" when I plop sweetened biscuit dough on top.  I use mostly stevia for the sweetener, but add some brown sugar to give the sweet taste some deeper "notes".  Orange zest added before stewing is really good!  And a pinch of real cinnamon, I think...my hands usually do it without me thinking...but that is it I believe.  Happy Spring!

King Tut's Peas: Mummy Seed Craze

Even if the craze for anything Egyptian wasn't sweeping Great Britain, who could resist the idea that seeds found with mummies might germinate!?

The following from : Mummy wheat: notes on the history of a myth by Gabriel Moshenska.

"The publicity surrounding the mummy peas and mummy wheat was a source of
interest to the man who might have been expected to know more about them
than anyone: Sir John Gardner Wilkinson himself. In an undated letter to
Pettigrew he sought clarification of the issue:

My Dear Pettigrew

Can you give me any account of the Pea which according to an account in one of the newspapers has been grown from one I gave you out of a jar brought by me from an Egyptian tomb at Thebes. 

They say there are two kinds of Peas, a large one & a dwarf, both from seeds I gave you when unpacking the things I brought to the British Museum in 1833 or 1834.
The subject has excited … interest & I am anxious to get the best information from an authentic source. Of course the fact of their growing must rest with the person who planted them the first time, whose name Ishould like to know also. You can tell me if they are the same I gave you & whether there were two seeds or how many. 

Do you know of anyone who has grown the wheat from seeds taken from Egyptian jars found in the tombs? (Wilkinson n.d.)

Download his PDF which covers this topic beautifully.

Below -Ottawa Citizen - May 5, 1932

LINK - Another current brief page on mummy peas :-)

Chile’s Chinchorro Mummies:   Many Chinchorro mummies have an O-shaped mouth reminiscent

of Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream.” One explanation is that the artisans failed to tie the skulls tightly enough to close the mouth, which would have fallen open in death. Or maybe this was a deliberate practice, to give the face character and make the person seem to come alive. (“The Scream,” it turns out, was inspired by the expression on a natural Andean mummy in a Paris museum.)...Karl Reinhard of the University of Nebraska has identified seeds of wild tomatoes and mint in the bowels of several mummies. 

Oldest viable seed   From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a mummified (accidentally) ground squirrel...see below.

Carbon dated: The oldest carbon-14-dated seed that has grown into a viable plant was Silene stenophylla (narrow-leafed campion), an Arctic flower native to Siberia. Radiocarbon dating has confirmed an age of 31,800 ±300 years for the seeds. In 2007, more than 600,000 frozen mature and immature seeds were found buried in 70 squirrel hibernation burrows 38 metres (125 ft) below the permafrost near the banks of the Kolyma River. Believed to have been buried by Arctic ground squirrels, the mature seeds had been damaged to prevent germination in the burrow, however, three of the immature seeds contained viable embryos. Scientists extracted the embryos and successfully germinated plants in vitro which grew, flowered and created viable seeds of their own. The shape of the flowers differed from that of modern S. stenophylla with the petals being longer and more widely spaced than modern versions of the plant. Seeds produced by the regenerated plants germinated at a 100% success rate, compared with 90% for modern plants. Calculations of the γ radiation dose accumulated by the seeds since burial gave a reading of 0.07 kGy, the highest maximal dose recorded for seeds that have remained viable.[1][2][3]

• The oldest mature seed that has grown into a viable plant was a Judean date palm seed about 2,000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in Israel. It was germinated in 2005.[4][5][6][7] (For more details refer to Judean date palm: Germination of 2000-year-old seed).
• The third oldest viable seed recorded is the carbon-14-dated 1,300-year-old sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China in 1995.[8][9]

From -  http://www.mummytombs.com/mummylocator/group/scythian.htm

Scythian Mummies:

The Greek writer Herodotus visited the Scythians and described what they did when a king died. After digging a large, square grave,

"...they take the king's corpse and having opened the belly, and cleaned out the inside, fill the cavity with a preparation of chopped cypress, frankincense, parsley-seed, and anise-seed, after which they sew up the opening, enclose the body in wax, and placing it on a wagon, carry it about through all the different tribes."

"Old Maids and Mustard"

I like mustard, especially the horseradish mustard blends...or the super hot mustards served with Chinese foods.  I love that strange crinkly, spreading pain that sweeps my sinus. Just the thought of it whiffles my nose with a ghost tingle and I think I smell egg rolls!  I'm not a mustard wonk, however, so my frig door only has a few bottles of different blends.  I always get Bookbinder's mustards because my husband was an antiquarian bookbinder for 35 years.  The other bottles are whatever brand catches my eye when I am at the store.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       This ad from 1895 is full of Mustard Fairies!  I just shared all the seed brownies with you the other day, and here are mustard fairies.  The world is filled with unexpected delights!

I was really surprised to read in this following charming article how late in history England adopted this popular condiment made of mustard seeds.  In this magazine piece from an 1893 issue of The English Illustrated Magazine the author mentions mustard was developed 173 years ago...which makes it 1720.  That's not right; perhaps a type of more refined mustard is what the author refers to. It is a good read, and the illustrations are first rate! 

Just so you know, from Wikipedia: The early use of mustard as a condiment in England is attested from the year 1390 in the book The Forme of Cury which was written by King Richard II's master cooks. It was prepared in the form of mustard balls — coarse-ground mustard seed combined with flour and cinnamon, moistened, rolled into balls, and dried — which were easily stored and combined with vinegar or wine to make mustard paste as needed.

Did mustard seed workers have fewer bouts of sinus congestion than the other trades, I wonder.

Allyl isothiocyanate, mustard oil, is the potent ingredient that does a job on your head. "Trigeminal chemosensory nerve endings in the nasal mucosa are in the first line of defense against noxious chemical challenges. Trigeminal excitation initiates the sensation of irritation and pain and initiates sneezing (10). Sensory-autonomic parasympathetic efferent reflex pathways induce secretions from nasal, lacrimatory and salivary glands, and the dilation of vessels in the nasal mucosa and sinuses." Link

A Flaccid Blue Sausage Caught My Eye

It all started with me noticing that on the side of an Ebay returns page there are "collections"...sort of a Pinterest collection  but of only Ebay images that someone is saving.  I was drawn to an image of big blue flaccid appearing things hanging on some naked twigs.   Nice blue though :-)

They turned out to be a bush called, in the Ebay offering of the seeds, Blue Sausage Tree.  Decaisnea fargesii.  Who knew!!!????

I want one! You slurp a sweet tasting but culturally unappealing looking (for Connecticut) fruit glop from the pod, and plant the beans for more.  It must taste good, as it does not seem to elicit positive reactions to its looks, if you take the REAL common name into account - Dead Man's Fingers. Yum!   I can see why the seller changed it.  A link to a NPR page by Ketzel Levine about the plant in detail is at the bottom of this page.

This plant made me think of another one I had fallen for decades ago, Akebia quinata...or maybe trifolium.  Anyway, there is a wonderful park in Newburyport, MA,USA, Maudsley Park.  It is the former estate of the Maudsley family, which now has no manner house but has beautiful grounds on the Merrimac River.

The entrance of the old estate.

While exploring it, Jack and I wandered into an overgrown boxwood garden which had a huge akebia vine covered in weird blue fruits trying to climb over the walls. It had thoroughly draped the trees, whatever they were. We had no idea what it was and went home with a drop to identify. Bailey's Hortus 3rd saved the day eventually but I am so grateful for internet access now!!!!!  Like Dead Man's Fingers, the fruit of the akebia lacks appeal once you see inside the charming blue rind. Looking very much like a huge unwholesome larvae, you need to suck the jelly from between the closely packed seeds. We didn't know that fact at the time, so I missed my chance.

This is the restored boxwood garden I found almost swallowed by the akebia 30 or more years ago.  It is nice the garden and grounds have caretakers now but it sure was romantic in its decline.  Below is a photo I took when we were still trying to identify the blue skinned alien fruits.  Do you know the vines are great for basket making?  I learned that somewhere years ago...I think it is traditional basket material in Japan. 

From NPR: Plant Profiles: Decaisnea fargesii  (Plant Profiles are excerpted from Plant This! by Ketzel Levine.)

If I Should Plant a Tiny Seed of Love

What could be more appropriate for Valentine's Day?

And if that gentleman's hand should lead to bed...

Graine de bois de lit = Seed of the bedstead = enfant

This is one weird postcard! The tiny one in the chamber pot in the bedside table is most bizarre.

I am fond of this couple. :-)

 This one below reminds me of a Stephen Sondheim moment...

And now some good, honest schmaltz.  

I probably shouldn't mention it to that cherub, but the horseshoe
 is pointing the wrong way...it is letting the luck fall out. Oh dear.