[niknik]

Can anyone tell me if it is ok to eat rhubarb which has started to flower.  We have just been given some and it has flowers on it.  Is it ok just to cut off the flowers and cook as normal?  Many thanks

[HLS]

Do you mean 'is it OK to eat stalks from a plant that is flowering', or 'is it OK to eat the stalk with the flower on the end'?

I'd say definitely OK for the first one (although you should cut/pull the flower spike off the plant to stop the plant putting too much energy into flowering) but I'm not sure about the second - no rhubarb plant of mine has ever got that far!

[wighty]

My Rhubarb plant sent up three flower stems, which after advice on here I have cut out, they were completely hollow and 'wept' copiously.  The plant is only two years old and now looks very sad but I hope it will recover and 'gird it's loins' now to give me something to eat!

[David.]

It seems, at least for me, to be a rather early year for rhubarb flowers, as my earliest plantshave already produced (and had removed) 10 flowers by last week, when I normally the first in May.

[Trebor]

Same subject, numpty question, but I will ask anyway. I understand the leaves are poisonous on rhubarb, does this also mean the green end of the stalk is poisonous?

I should have asked yesterday as I threw away the greenish ends of some stalks and ate the rest – first home grown rhubarb crumble, yum! 

[Yorkie]

I just tear off the leaf itself and eat the rest (after cooking) - not suffered any ill-effects yet

[azubah]

I have never heard of anyone dying of rhubarb poisoning. Has anyone else?

[Stripey_cat]

I've heard of animals dying after people fed pets the leaves.  I think most people know not to eat the leaves (and they'd taste very sharp and horrible), so it doesn't arise.

The low-level stress on kidneys etc. from eating large amounts of the stem can be a problem if you already have kidney disease, and that is documented along with sorrel and spinach.

[David.]

I just tear off the leaf itself and eat the rest (after cooking) - not suffered any ill-effects yet

Information in wine making books suggests that the oxalic acid can extend down the stem an inch or two frrom the leaf, which is why, when making rhubarb wine, I leave all the stem up to the leaf in place when sulphiting to cleanse the rhubarb sticks, then cut the ends (that have soaked up sulphite/contain oxalic acid) off, because sulphite in rhubarb wine changes the flavour.

[Yorkie]

Didn't know about the top 1-2" David, thanks for that

[DeeM]

Another question: some of my rhubarb sticks have hollow "tubes" running inside them.  Are these sticks OK to eat or will they be stringy?  And what causes this?
And back to gardening - is it OK to put the leaves on the compost heap, or are they too acidic?

[Yorkie]

Wouldn't have thought there was a problem with the hollow stems, and yes you can compost the leaves