I am probably quite fortunate to be called, however unimaginatively, Tigger. Given my strong affinity for rhubarb the humans apparently considered calling me Custard!
Protect me from human imagination and cheap wit. Rhubarb is fabulous stuff, custard is yellow and limp. Rhubarb grows out of a great bed of deep comfortable straw and produces vast green sun umbrellas on long sturdy stems. Rhubarb patch is the perfect place for a cat in summer; comfortable, shaded, hidden. Custard tastes strange and glues up your fur.
It was Autumn when they first discovered I was visiting their garden. The rhubarb was still lush and the new straw only slightly prickly. F tells me now that it’s remarkable for rhubarb to keep its leaves through the winter, but it did that year. I slept there all winter. Sun umbrellas kept off the rain, were a roof against frost and got loaded with snow. It was Spring before they realized that’s where I went at night.
(The adoption process took a while to complete. My humans were convinced I had another home. “He’s in such good condition,” they said, “he must belong to someone.” Belong to someone! What do they think I am? So I take a pride in my appearance, and if I had previously associated with some other humans, I certainly wasn’t telling them about it. F even carried me about the neighbourhood to see if anyone recognized me – or I recognized another home. Well I wasn’t giving that away. By then I knew I was onto a pretty good thing even if it needed some refinement – regular food, TV, computers, a refuge from that vicious Siamese cat from down the road, and a rhubarb patch.)
I’ve never tried to grow rhubarb. I don’t think I’ve even eaten it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I’ll try and see how I go.
If successful I’ll need recipes
I think you chose the right family for you
Humans assure me rhubarb and banana crumble is supberb (bananas mean you can scrimp or even leave out the sugar). Rhubarb and ginger make great jam - as does a mix of rhubarb and strawberries. You can also make rhubarb and ginger chutney, clafoutis, rhubarb and custard of course, F even has a recipe for rhubarb baklava (and currently no rhubarb to put in it!) Rhubsrb and orange also go together well. Its easy to grow, you just need horse pooh (or sheep, goat, cow....its not fussy) in the bottom of a hole in the ground. Fill it in and plant rhubarb on top. Put a box round it to keep the straw in and fill the box with straw. If you look online you will get lots of instructions about forcing rhubarb - it makes pale pink stems and delicate flavour but kills the plant after a couple of years.
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