Food - Drink
The Top Tip You Need For Harvesting Rhubarb
By KATHERINE BECK
Rhubarb is a tart vegetable that is usually ready for harvest in late March, but if you grow your own, Taste of Home recommends waiting until the summer for best results. You should make sure a rhubarb plant is at least one year old and around 7 to 15 inches long before picking, and you can use this trick to make the harvest easier.
When harvesting rhubarb, MasterClass warns against cutting the red stalks off the plant, which makes the crop vulnerable to bacteria. Instead, the best method is to grab the stalk near the bottom, then gently tug and twist the stalk while pulling it upward, which should separate the stalk neatly from the plant near the roots.
Taste of Home also advises that you harvest only 2/3 of the rhubarb off the plant, to make sure there is enough left to grow for the following year's harvest season. When you harvest the rhubarb stalks, you'll also take off some of the plant’s leaves, which are inedible and toxic to humans, but can be composted.
