While covering up strawberries and spring seedlings in preparation for a freeze, I suddenly couldn't recall whether or not lush new rhubarb growth needs to be protected. So I headed to the internet for an answer.

What I found was information I hadn't been looking for. Did you realize that the problematic oxalic acid in the leaves of rhubarb moves down into the stems during freezes? In other words, even if you don't need to cover the plants during spring freezes (which seems to be the case --- no visible damage at 27 degrees), you might want to pick any stems you're interested in eating beforehand. Rhubarb crumble --- a new tradition for Dogwood Winter.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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