Rude Barb

No, I am not dissing my good friend Barbara!

When you were a kid, how many things did you hear your parents - or someone else – say that you completely misunderstood?

For Mark, there was the hymn, "Gladly the Cross I'd Bear" which he heard as "Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear" (Apparently, from my Google search, he was not alone), and the inscruitable phrase in Jingle Bells about the “one whore soapen sleigh.”

There is always the ever-popular Dwight Yoakim song, "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere" wherein his imperfect diction seems to render ‘echoes in my head’ to 'pickles in my ears.'

For me, much of what I misheard growing up was botanical. Perhaps this was because, even as a kid, I loved gardening.

Easter dinner in our Maine home many years ago... forsythia whips in blossom
My mother loved forsythia - but I always thought she said "For Cynthia," which made a sort of nonsensical sense because Cynthia was the sister of one of our baby sitters down the street, and they had a beautiful forsythia bush out front.

In Mrs. Longshore's garden next door, was a culinary plant my mother disliked. And every year, Mrs. Longshore would offer some to my mother, who would politely refuse, saying to us afterwards sotto voce, "I never did like Rude Barb."

Now, that made no sense to me because there was no one in our lives named Barb. Mrs. Longshore's name was Alice and her daughter, also one of our sitters, was Mary Ann. What's up with that Mom? Who's Barb?

Later - probably not until I was an adult - I had my first rhubarb pie and fell in love with the stuff. I enjoyed how it made the inside of my mouth tingle, and how it seemed to activate taste buds I didn't even know I had.

I stopped calling the flower ForCynthia and this leafy plant RudeBarb long ago. But I still love them both. They are both harbingers of spring - well, them along with sparrow grass.

Mark snapped this photo of the immense forsythia bushes in our Kittery, Maine, garden
Here in the desert, we are deep into spring, and I thought it would be fun to make a rhubarb compote - it is great on ice cream, vanilla pudding, and even as a "chutney" served with grilled poultry. I bet it would even be a good variant in the Pêche Melba from a few weeks ago.

Today, looking at a vase filled with long whips of forsythia forced into bloom (thank you, Trader Joe!), I am spooning this wonderful sauce over vanilla ice cream for a refreshing dessert.

~ David

Rhubarb Compote

1 pound rhubarb, ends trimmed and washed
1/2 cup sugar, plus extra if desired
small pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
3 tablespoons water

Cut rhubarb into 1/2-inch pieces and place in a large saucepan. Add sugar, salt, rosemary (if using), and water, and cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until rhubarb is soft and begins to break down, and sauce has a syrupy consistency. Taste for sweetness and add more sugar, if desired.

Serve a spoonful over vanilla ice cream or pudding, or add some chopped rosemary while cooking and serve alongside grilled poultry.

Makes 2-3 cups. Leftovers can be frozen.

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