When is rhubarb toxic

That was right around the time of World War I when people were advised to eat rhubarb leaves. My family must have ignored the recommendation. Preheat the oven to F. Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and buttermilk; mix thoroughly. Sift flour, soda, salt; add to sugar-buttermilk mixture.

Add vanilla and rhubarb. Pour into greased and floured 9- by inch pan. Sprinkle topping over batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.

Makes 12 servings. Each serving has calories, 4 grams g of protein, 9 g of fat, 41 g of carbohydrate, 1 g of fiber and milligrams of sodium. Julie Garden-Robinson, Ph.

Extension and Ag Research News Accessibility. So if you were wondering if frozen, pre-packaged rhubarb is safe to eta or sue in pies, it is. As any other vegetable or fruit in this world, rhubarb can and will go bad. Mold at the ends of the stalks, especially the lower ends. Mold will grow naturally on any surface, as the spores are in the air around us all the time.

If you see mold on your rhubarb, you have two options. You can either throw out the entire thing, or cut off the moldy part and sue the rest. Normally rhubarb stalks are like celery stalks. Stiff, fibrous, and watery. If you try to snap them, they offer a lot of resistance. Soft stalks are not a good sign, and should be thrown right away. By on. Rhubarb is a great vegetable that is one of the easiest things to grow.

I deadhead the flower stem, mulch with wood chips and that is the only care the plant has gotten in 10 years. It produces every year. But gardeners need to make things more complicated and numerous rhubarb myths have developed. Forced rhubarb is especially sweet — is this a rhubarb myth? It is well known that you should not eat rhubarb leaves because of the high levels of oxalic acid.

Did you know carrots and radishes contain just as much oxalic acid, and spinach has twice as much? When the rhubarb plant in the garden gets a touch of frost it goes limp. Some people believe that the frost causes the plant to move oxalic acid from the leaves to the stalks, which now contain toxic levels of oxalic acid.

I did not find any evidence that oxalic acid is moved from one part of the plant to another as a result of frost. And since the oxalic acid levels in the leaves are not toxic see the above myth this is really not a concern. Light touches of frost will not harm the plant and the stalks can be harvested. These should be pulled and composted. New growth is fine to eat. Rhubarb stalks are best if harvested in spring and early summer, but they do not become toxic or poisonous in late summer.

They can be eaten all summer long. This myth is related to the idea that too much oxalic acid can be toxic and who wants toxic compost. Oxalic acid is not easily absorbed by other plants so even if it is in compost, it will not harm other plants or be transferred into food you might eat. Oxalic acid will also be broken down during the composting process.

Once added to soil, it continues to decompose and will not build up in the soil. There is nothing wrong with green stalks — they are fine to eat. Stalk color is affected by both environmental conditions and genetics with genetics playing the major role. Green varieties are often much more productive.

Consumers also often assume the red stemmed rhubarb is sweeter than other colors but color and sweetness are not necessarily related. The Victoria variety, which is probably the greenest variety, can produce some very sweet stems. Forced rhubarb is sweeter than regular rhubarb.

Forcing is a process whereby the plant is covered in spring so that new growth takes place without light. The picture above shows a container placed over part of the plant to produce some forced stalks. The use of a natural pesticide made from rhubarb leaves is frequently promoted.

Boil the leaves in some water for 20 minutes, cool, add a few drops of dish detergent and you have a spray that will kill all kinds of bugs and fungal diseases. Though a good wash may remove the poison, I would not recommend testing it. And a reminder not to use it if you have dogs who may lick or chew the plants you are spraying.

Since you can eat small amounts of rhubarb leaves I see no reason why it should not be sprayed on edible crops. I could not find evidence that supports this claim; to be honest I did not look very hard.

Insects do eat rhubarb leaves and boiling the leaves would only extract a minor amount of some of the chemicals present, producing what amounts to a homeopathic solution. Rhubarb plants showing no sign of damage are fine and can be harvested. Do the rhubarb stalks become poisonous by summer?

It is generally recommended that home gardeners stop harvesting rhubarb in early to mid-June. Continued harvest through the summer months would weaken the plants and reduce the yield and quality of next year's crop. The rhubarb stalks may become somewhat woody by mid-summer, but they don't become poisonous. Is it safe to harvest rhubarb if the plant is flowering? While the flower or seed stalks should not be used, the leaf stalks are edible.

However, the flower stalks should be promptly pulled and discarded. If allowed to develop, the flower stalks reduce plant vigor and next year's production. Flower stalk formation may be caused by drought, infertile soils, and extreme heat.