It has taken the revival of interest in seasonal, native crops to restore rhubarb to its place in the British diet. It thrives well in our climate, grows well in our soil and has a colourful British food history.
A Scottish contribution to this was made by James Mounsey (1709-1773), who brought back rhubarb seeds to Lockerbie in Dumfriesshire as he fled the Russian court, in fear for his life, where he had been doctor to the assassinated tsar, Peter III. At his house, Rammerscales, he grew fields of rhubarb.
Although the dried root had been used as a purgative drug in China for centuries, uses for the stalks were being developed by the 18th century. Britain began experimenting earlier than other countries, mostly thanks to innovative recipe writers.
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Hannah Glasse has the first recipe in her Compleat Confectioner of 1760, using rhubarb instead of gooseberries in a tart. A century later, it is fully established with a complete range of uses in Mrs Beeton's 1861 book.
Now Mary Prior, a historian who lives in Oxford and Shetland, has trawled the rhubarb archives for her book, Rhubarbaria. It includes some interesting Shetland and Orkney recipes, where rhubarb grows in profusion.
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Rhubarbaria by Mary Prior, Prospect Books, £8.99. To find out more about the plant, go to www.rhubarbinfo.com