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Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

bbc.com

111–120 of 125 posts

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions the content is 500mg of oxalic acid / 100g and says the deadly dose is at 15 - 30g. That makes for 3-6kg of rhubarb leaves. Quite a serving, if you ask me. In the original British understatement: > Since a lethal dose of oxalic acid is somewhere between 15 and 30 grams, you’d have to eat several pounds of rhubarb leaves at a sitting to reach a toxic oxalic acid level, which is a lot more rhubarb…

That’s more oxalic acid than I’d have guessed. Treating bees for varroa more takes about 25g of oxalic acid per box of bees. I’d kind of hoped the leaves might have more oxalic, then I could have tried putting rhubarb leaves in there instead of battling fumes, glycerine and strips of paper.

Some beekeepers where I live put strips of rhubarb stalks in the hives to treat varoa. Not sure how effevtive it is though.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#113
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does cow's milk contain so much calcium when they only eat plants?

In New Zealand where cows are all grass fed, they eat 50 kg of grass each day. Milk is concentrated nutrients.

Correct.

Moreover, the lactating dairy cows which are kept in industrial conditions usually receive mineral supplements with calcium and/or phosphorus, in variable quantities, depending on the composition of their food, to achieve a maximal milk production, unlike the cows which graze freely.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#114

According to my father, "rhubarb" is what the extras say in crowd scenes in TV and film. They mumble, "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" and it gives the impression of muted, indistinct background conversations. By the same token, the choral singer who forgets the lyrics during a performance can sing "watermelon, watermelon" until she gets to a place where she recalls the words. The philosophy is that, as long as you get a…

Also "peas and carrots, peas and carrots."

Source: was married to a professional actor; saw this used on sets many times.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#115
post #15

Remember that rhubarb leaves are actually poisonous due to oxalic acid (I've seen quotes of 2-5 kg od leaves being a lethal dose). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/does-rhub...

I've lived in fear of rhubarb leaves for 40 years since my Mum warned me about them. We used to grow rhubarb in our garden in England, which I loved, but was terrified of one day being poisoned by the leaves. Took me this long to find out I really didn't have anything to be afraid of, thank you.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#116
post #7

Time for mention of the rhubarb triangle... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb_Triangle From the Wikipedia article... The Rhubarb Triangle is a 9-square-mile (23 km2) area of West Yorkshire, England between Wakefield, Morley, and Rothwell famous for producing early forced rhubarb. It includes Kirkhamgate, East Ardsley, Stanley, Lofthouse and Carlton. The Rhubarb Triangle was originally much bigger, covering an a…

They need to Champagnify that

I thought you meant turn it into an alcoholic beverage, so I looked it up and apparently there is such a thing as rhubarb wine.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They need to Champagnify that

I thought you meant turn it into an alcoholic beverage, so I looked it up and apparently there is such a thing as rhubarb wine.

Slightly tangential but along the same lines. Worth a read, BlackBerry Wine by Joanne Harris. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackberry_Wine

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#118
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there are no constraints, then it is easy to get sufficient protein on a vegan diet. On the other hand, with constraints, which in my case were that I was not willing to spend more money for a vegan-based diet than for a meat-based diet, and that I was not willing to spend more than one hour per day with cooking, cumulated for all the meals of a day, while also wanting to eat mostly, if not exclusively, food cooke…

I’m not vegan so it’s none of my business, but: Sure! if you’re not eating processed foods, and you don’t want to spend hours a day cooking, everyone needs supplements. Don’t forget that our salt and our flour and our milk and — “raw ingredients” — are supplemented by default with micros the standard diet is deficient in. If the standard diet was vegan, there’d be taurine in the lentils and we’d be saying a meat-and-…

Do you have any source on that?

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#119
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in Finland this is common knowledge and pretty much every house has rhubarb growing in the yard somewhere.

I'm living in Finland, and that is where I got that knowledge from. So yes, unfortunately my source is also empirical knowledge. But knowing how certain African cultures learned to neutralize Cassava, and that knowledge passed through generations without knowing the reason why, I learned to not fully dismiss these kinds of knowledge...

Interesting. I'm in New Zealand and hadn't come across this. Being a commonwealth country makes me suspect it's not common knowledge in England either. Or has perhaps as you mention the reasons have been lost over time.

Thank you for your reply.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make sense to me. 200g of cooked rhubarb already has almost 400mg of calcium which is almost half of the 1000mg daily US recommendation and more than half of the 700mg daily UK recommendation. Thinking dairy is the only source of calcium is meme-nutrition like eating bananas for potassium especially when talking about a food already high in calcium.

Do you know why doesn't the Oxalic acid bind with the calcium of the Rhubarb, and turns into a problem if consumed? Is there enough calcium to bind with the Oxalic acid? Is the calcium in Rhubarb bioavailable? Genuine questions here, because as I understand, many of the nutricional fact sheets are calculated after the food is broken down and passed though a mass spectrometer.

The calcium in Rhubarb is Calcium Oxalate, which is not likely to be highly bioavailable. Not all calcium is equal in this case.
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