Stovetop Rhubarb and Sweet Cicely

This year's rhubarb (2025) is very early, thanks to the warm and sunny weather we've been having since mid March. I'm already having to pick and process the rhubarb so as not to let any go to waste and have been looking at various alternatives to freezing stewed rhubarb and jam making. 

Once topped and tailed, I use the whole leaves as a green mulch around young trees. As the leaves wilt, they also subdued the grass and weeds beneath them. 

Here, I have used the leaves around a rowan tree saplings that was planted on behalf of a Frugaldom supporter to commemorate King Charles III Coronation in May 2023.

In the ever growing herb nursery (herbery) behind the hut, the sweet cicely is also growing in profusion so nature is telling me that these two plants ought to go together in some way.

I picked a handful of sweet cicely leaves and chopped them up to cook with the rhubarb. You can tell this is definitely sweet cicely by the milky splodge at the base of the leaves.

Simmering together in a pan on top of the stove. I am doing this at the hut, which doesn't afford me the luxury of an oven, so I will dry fry some sugar/flour/oil crumble in a separate pan then sprinkle that over the rhubarb to complete this tasty pudding.

stivetop crumble - flour, sugar, porridge oats and a little oil to crumble the mix. Dry fry it until crispy, crunchy then pour over the top of your stewed fruit.

Let me know in the comments if you have any simple recipes for rhubarb and very basic ingredients that can be made on a stovetop. I've no fridge here so the end products need to keep ok at room temperature. I will look out a few tubs for freezing stewed rhubarb at home.

You can join the Friends of Frugaldom and come sample hutlife for yourself by subscribing via our Ko-Fi page. Help yourself to whatever is growing at the time of your visit or stay. We are focussing much of our attention this year on developing the veg soup garden and the fruit pudding garden.