[Sca-cooks] Is Rhubarb period for Europe? or not?

[Stefan li Rous]

Ranvaig replied to me with:
<<<
 > I'm trying to verify whether Rhubarb is period for Europe or not,  
and finding conflicting information. I can't seem to find my
 > copy of Waverly Root's book right now.

Oh goody, I get to remind Stefan to search the Florilegium. >>>

Sigh. Okay, yes I should have looked there first. Among other things  
it answers the question I had from some other sources such as what I  
quoted and what Bear quoted, about what portion of the rhubarb plant  
was used medicinally.

<<< Although I don't know why you call it a root vegetable.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-VEGETABLES/root-veg-msg.html >>>

I apparently placed it in the root vegetables file because Ras, in  
the message below, says that is what was used medicinally.

Since it gets added to pies, my first thought was to say it was a  
fruit. But it is apparently the stalks that are most used these days,  
rather than the roots.  It is also apparently used to make a wine and  
an infusion. I thought that rhubarb was always used in conjunction  
with a fruit such as in pies, but online I see recipes which don't  
use any additional fruit.

I do sometimes violate strict characterizations in deciding which  
file to place some items, and instead place them where people expect  
to find them. For instance, the files about tomatoes are in the  
vegetable, not the fruit section. So if you were looking for info on  
rhubarb, where would you first look for it? Perhaps I should move  
this particular message.

Here is the message.

Stefan

=========
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 1998 08:20:17 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Garden time

melc2newton at juno.com writes:
<< Is rhubarb medieval?  If so, how about some recipes?  I'm planning on
  planting one of these things in my yard (mainly for wine, mmmmmmm...).
  And would love to have proof of it's being "period."
  Beatrix >>

According to Waverly Root in "Food," rhubarb was reached the Western  
world
from China in the Roman era.  Pliny mentions it in passing, as does
Dioscorides. Ibn-el-Beithar wrote in the 13th century C.E. that  
rhubarb was
common in Syria and had "like chard, it has fairly thick stalks."  This
suggests that he may have realized it as good to eat and which part  
was eaten.

However, Europeans imported the root only as a medicinal, having in true
barbaric European fashion eaten the leaves early on with disastrous  
results.
Leonhard Ruuwolf saw it growing in Lebanon circa 1573-1575 C.E. It  
was growing
in certain abbeys as a medicinal and planted by a certain Adolf Occo  
in 1570
bringing it into the lay garden.  Lyte mentions it as growing in English
herborist's gardens as a curiosity in 1578 C.E. Prosper Albinus grew  
it in the
botanical gardens in Padua at the same time, describing and  
illustrating it in
his herbal.

It is not until the 18th century that we see reference to it's use as  
food.
And even into the 19th century, it was grown not so much for the  
edible stalks
but rather, in the case of Rheum rhaponticum, for it's edible  
unopened flower
heads.  R. rhaponticum curiously is the plant grown by Occo, Albinus  
Gerard
and Parkinson.

So apparently rhubarb was NOT grown as food during the Middle Ages  
although
it's roots were imported, or rarely grown, as medicine or botanical
curiosities with the exception of the more civilized Persian world  
where it's
culinary delights most probably were known.

That being the case, IMO, it deserves a place in the garden for it's  
medicinal
uses along side the many other herbs grown for this purpose.
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****