[Magdalen] Rhubarb cookies

[Ann Markle]

I grew rhubarb in TN on the Cumberland Plateau.  It never really thrived,
though, and the leaves/stalks never got very big after the first year or
two.  My mother also made rhubarb pies and stewed rhubarb.  I managed to
stew some and then add Splenda (since off sugar), and it came out well.  In
our neck of the woods, sassafras tea was the "spring tonic," said to "thin
the blood" after a long winter.  Who knows if sassafras root has natural
blood thinner?  Some of those old home remedies are as good as the modern
stuff we get at the drug store, if less standardized.

Ann

The Rev. Ann Markle
Buffalo, NY
ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
blog:  www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com

On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 10:47 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> We had a clump of rhubarb out behind the garage of the house in Madison,
> WI, where I grew up. It was there when we moved in, so who knows how old it
> was. In any case, my mother not only made wonderful rhubarb pies, but
> canned rhubarb sauce, which we ate throughout the winter (and it's pretty
> good over vanilla ice cream, too). We kids also ate the stalks raw,
> sprinkled with sugar (it took a LOT!) in summer. When I visited the house
> in 2001, I forgot to see if the rhubarb was still there. I was never able
> to grow rhubarb in Tennessee. I'd try it here, but it probably doesn't like
> black walnut trees.
>
> Around Madison, it was known as "Norwegian Ex-Lax".
>