Rhubarb

[Sue]

OK so I'm immediately showing my ignorance.
Is rhubarb a fruit or a veggie
I prefer mine my thick lumpy custard but someone out there may say gravy (UGH )
Anyway - its my first year so I can't eat mine HUGE sticks - I love it - it looks really tropical and jungly - especially as it shades the frog pond (small though it is)
What do I do next - can I leave it alone - or should I cut back later in the year?
I'd prefer to keep it as long as possible as it does look stunning - but want to eat loads next year
Also - what could be eating it - got holes in - but no sign of pests - could my beloved frogs be chewing on their umbrella! I suppose they do deserve a treat

[Millymollymandy]

Well I thought it was a fruit but now that you mention it, it looks more like a veggie! Don't fancy it with gravy though any more than tomatoes (fruit) with custard!

Hope there's a rhubarb expert out there because it's my first year growing them too.

[greenbean]

Hello Sue & MMM, I beleive it's officially a veg, but I think of it as a fruit and I use it as a fruit, I have a huge patch, I recently made some jam with it. I know in Poland they eat it as a side veg.
I find if I cut back different parts of my rhubarb at one time, it still looks good and the new growth that comes, does look good, mine definately likes a good pruning. Don't know what might be attacking your rhubarb, sorry.

[Muddypause]

I think it is a mistake to think of the terms 'fruit' and 'vegetable' as mutually exclusive - a fruit can be a vegetable, and a vegetable can be a fruit. But there are also fruits that are not vegetables, and vegetables that are not fruits.

As a rhubarb stick is not the seed bearing part of the plant, then I guess it cannot be a fruit. I think I'd call it a dessert vegetable, or sweet vegetable perhaps.

[Wombat]

I have seen it classified as a fruit - what it is used for rather than what it is!

Nev

[Muddypause]

I have seen it classified as a fruit - what it is used for rather than what it is!

It certainly goes on the tinned fruit shelf in the supermarket.

I've been trying to think of another non-fruit sweet vegetable that we use as a dessert. Carrots in carrot cake is about the best I can come up with.

The number of fruit we use as savoury or salad vegetables is legion:

Tomatoes
Marrow/corgette/pumpkin and other squashes
Peas
Beans
Capsicums
Sweet corn (or is this a cereal?)
Cucumber
Aubergines
...

[Magpie]

Re: the holes in the leaves - I had snails eating mine, they liked to lurk under the leaves.
I also think that if your rhubarb is lovely and huge, you could use some of the stems to eat, that way you can prune it and eat it at the same time! I can't see that it would affect it too much, if you go easy on it.