Farmer Gary has been buying and cooking sweet corn like mad these last few weeks of the season. He’s also been complaining about the prices – ranging from four ears for a dollar to a dollar a piece!

His shucking and cooking of corn on the cob reminded me of childhood summers. And rhubarb. Mom used to stew it and then top a scoop of vanilla ice cream with it. There was something else she’d make with it, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

When I get to thinking about childhood in the 1960s, I often send off an email to my three brothers to see what their recollections are.

Once again, they did not disappoint.

From Dave: Rhubarb has been a favorite of mine since I was a little shaver. I make several batches of rhubarb sauce a year (Marie-Susanne has a couple of productive patches) and put it over pancakes (along with a dab of maple or brown-sugar syrup), French toast (ditto), in yogurt, or over ice cream. The sauce is just rhubarb, brown sugar, a little butter, and a bit of water to get things started until the fruit begins to juice.

Bill’s remembrance: I definitely remember rhubarb à la mode. Also, I think Mom made rhubarb crisp with oats.

Yes! That’s the treat I wasn’t remembering: Rhubarb Crisp.

Retrieving Mom’s 1949 cookbook, the volume nearly opened itself to page 587.

And here is the recipe from that rather spattered, oft-visited page:

Crumble-Topped Rhubarb

3 cups diced, unpeeled young rhubarb
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon water
6 Tablespoons butter
6 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

Heat oven to 350° F. In a 10″ x 6″ x 2″ baking dish, combine first 6 ingredients. Cream butter with flour and brown sugar; stir in oats; sprinkle over rhubarb. Bake 40 minutes or until rhubarb is tender, and the crumble is brown. Makes 4 servings.

And finally, Harry’s input: I have no rhubarb memories, maybe because I’m not a fan of the stuff.

(Harry’s favorite childhood summer dessert, if memory serves, was sweet corn.)

Online articles proclaim Rhubarb is the (almost) new Kale. Warnings are stated right up front not to eat the poisonous roots or leaves. That said, there were centuries of praise for the vegetable as a cure-all for stomach ailments.

Here in Indiana, Gary has memories of rhubarb cooking in his mom‘s kitchen, too:

You heard that right – Rita mowed over the rhubarb plants – but they came back anyway!

Here she is with her first grandchild on Easter. And look what’s down by her feet … rhubarb!

A quick check of Rita’s cookbook, and here is her recipe for Rhubarb Custard.

Rhubarb Custard

1 pound rhubarb
1 Tablespoon water
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 eggs, beaten

Wash rhubarb; discard leaves and dice stems. Add water, cover, and cook slowly until rhubarb is soft. Mix together 1/2 cup of the sugar and 1 Tablespoon of the cornstarch, and stir into the rhubarb; stir constantly over low heat until sauce is thickened. Remove from heat. Mix remaining cornstarch, sugar, and salt in saucepan, then add milk, and cook over direct heat with constant stirring until mixture boils and thickens. Slowly stir into the beaten eggs and cook over hot water, stirring constantly for two minutes. When both custard and rhubarb sauce are cooled, stir the sauce into the custard. Serve chilled. Five servings.

Gary says his mom took the recipe one step further: Pour the mixture into a prepared pie shell. He remembers his mom would bake it in the oven for “just a little bit,” then let it cool on the counter.

Thanks to Great-Uncle Leo (who was Gary’s dad’s godfather) for those three rhubarb plants so long ago. Here’s the only picture we have of him, from his service in World War I:

Those three rhubarb plants kept producing for about 35 years. That’s pretty impressive, as the online experts declare a 15-year lifespan to be a ripe old age.

But most impressive of all? For Gary, never before – or since – has eating vegetables been such a pleasure.

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