Rhubarb (Rheum rhubarbarum), like asparagus, is an exception in the vegetable world. It’s a perennial plant, except in Zones 8 and warmer where it’s treated as an annual, and once established, it comes back faithfully year after year. (Click here for more on perennials and click here for information on annuals.) It will even spread, allowing you to dig, divide, and share plants with friends. Hopefully, you have many friends, because you’ll only need a few healthy rhubarb plants to produce plenty for pies, jams, and jellies. Not usually eaten raw, rhubarb is best used as an ingredient in cooking. Can’t you just smell that strawberry-rhubarb pie fresh from the oven?

Rhubarb is one of those “plant and forget” crops. If it has full sun, well-drained soil, lots of compost and manure mixed in, and water, it will grow like a weed. Rhubarb does best in cool climates, so gardeners in Florida and Arizona may have to rely on their northern friends for fresh rhubarb. For best quality, harvest the leaf stalks as soon as the leaves completely unfold to a flat surface. Always leave at least two leaf stalks per plant so the plant can rejuvenate itself. If a seed stalk forms (usually from the center of the plant), cut it off to extend the leaf-stalk harvesting season. The plants die back in fall, but they reemerge in spring from the roots.

The part of the rhubarb plant you eat is the leaf stalk that grows from the crown of the plant. Don’t eat the leaf itself, unless you want an upset stomach. Depending on the variety, the stalks are green or red and taste sour. The most tender varieties have leaf stalks that are red all the way through, such as ‘Chipman’ and ‘Valentine.’

Click here for a rhubarb pie recipe from ecomii.