[kurwin]

ours has gone wild this year but just means extra rhubarb liquer for purely medicinal purposes (of course) you understand

[pdblake]

Gettings loads here too, lots of flowers with it though. I think I might have to start freezing some soon too.

[grendel]

ours got moved at the end of last year, out of a half barrel into the front garden, yet its still going great guns.
Grendel

[hightide]

I would like to share this recipe with you

Rhubarb & Pimm’s Trifle courtesy of Nigel, radio 2 chef
Serves 6
Prep time 30 mins
Cooking time 1hr (+ 5hrs setting/chilling time)
Ingredients
50ml Pimm’s No.1
50ml dry sherry
50g caster sugar
1 x 600ml pot of fresh custard
300ml double cream
1 tsp icing sugar
50g good quality dark chocolate
a few glacé cherries (if you fancy)
For the ginger cake
225g butter, plus extra for greasing
225g dark brown sugar
225g black treacle
2 eggs, beaten
290ml milk
340g plain flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
a small grating of nutmeg
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the rhubarb jelly
500g rhubarb, trimmed & cut into 3cm chunks
150ml water
140g caster sugar
50ml Pimm’s No.1
4 gelatine leaves
Method
1.    To make the ginger cake, preheat the oven to 160C/Gas 2.
2.    Grease & line a 30cm x 20cm roasting tin.
3.    Melt the butter, sugar & treacle together in a pan, leave to cool for 10 mins, then stir in the eggs & milk.
4.    Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg & bicarbonate of soda together in a large mixing bowl, then fold in the butter mixture to form a batter.
5.    Pour the batter into the roasting tin & bake in the oven for 45 mins, or until the cake is risen & firm.
6.    Leave to cool on a wire rack & store in an airtight container until needed.
7.    To make the jelly, preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
8.    Put the rhubarb in an ovenproof dish.
9.    Add the water, sugar & Pimm’s & cook in the oven for 15 mins, or until the rhubarb is just tender.
10. Strain the rhubarb juice into a small saucepan.
11. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 10 mins, squeeze out any water with the your hands & stir into the rhubarb juice to dissolve.
12. Put the rhubarb in your trifle bowl, pour over the liquid & refrigerate for at least 4hrs to set.
 
13. Now you’re ready to put the trifle together. Combine the Pimm’s, sherry & caster sugar.
14. Chop up 150g of the cake into cubes, add it to the boozy mix & then pop on top of the rhubarb jelly.
15. Pour over the custard & level out the top.
16. Whisk the cream together with the icing sugar until it’s gently holding its shape, then use to top the custard.
17. Grate over the chocolate & finish with glacé cherries if you like.
18. Pop in the fridge to chill for 1hr before eating.
Nigel's Top Tips
•       If you're a glacé cherry fiend, do add a few of them whole or sliced at the end, just before the grated chocolate, which are Marraschino cherries preserved in sugar syrup, making them firm, shiny & yet sticky.
•       When mixing your double cream & icing sugar, continue whisking until it gently holds it's shape.
•       Pimm's No.1 is bottled at 25% a.b.v, so mix it with 2-3 x as much lemonade to taste, with a mixture of your favourite fruit, traditionally strawberries, oranges, lemons, cucumber & mint.  If mixed with Champagne it's called 'Pimm's Royal Cup'.

just need a sunny evening

[Lastcast]

Ours has gone crazy too, we have 6 crowns, some of the stalks must be almost 3 feet long by an inch square, loads of really small spindly stalks also. When I looked today several of the stalks had broken/burst, must be related to the weather this year ??

[Beetroot queen]

Ours has gone crazy too, we have 6 crowns, some of the stalks must be almost 3 feet long by an inch square, loads of really small spindly stalks also. When I looked today several of the stalks had broken/burst, must be related to the weather this year ??

We looked at ours and the middle looks like someone has jumped on it, wonder if it's the same. 

[Azazello]

Yep, my rhubarb is loving something this year. Huge leaves and loads of lovely red stalks, a few flowers but I just pull 'em off!

A crumble a week and plenty of rhubarb and ginger jam. Lovely. It's so easy to grow too, I 'm not sure why it's so expensive in the shops (last time I looked anyway).

[wil4025]

Mine has gone mad and massive. One flowered, pulled off before it could get big.

Second round coming up!