[Magdalen] Rhubarb cookies

[Jay Weigel]

"Spring tonic" in my neck of the woods in east TN was burdock tea. I had a
couple of patients who swore by it. One, in fact, made it up by the gallon,
and those of her kids who lived nearby would stop by the house to get a jug
of it from the refrigerator. I know the Japanese eat burdock (I believe
it's called "gobo" in Japanese) but I don't know if they regard it as
spring tonic.

On Sat, Mar 14, 2015 at 10:54 AM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu>
wrote:

> 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".
> >
>