Farm1 wrote:
I'd never heard of "champagne" rhubarb before so did a google for
this wonderous new variety that obviously isn't available in my
country.

I found this site:
http://www.practicallyedible.com/edi...a!openframeset
&frame=Right&Src=/edible.nsf/pages/ed.1407!opendocument
which suggests that it's merely blanched rhubarb.

Is this right?

Umm. I thought that blanching rhubarb was the norm. All those buckets
without bottoms, tall chimmney pot things, long unlit sheds in the
Rhubarb triangle - aren't they all about blanching?

I know that the less than organised among us have a crown or two and
don't bother with blanching - my sister and I for a start - but It had
never occured to me that commercially sold rhubarb /wasn't/ blanched.

In which case, why call it "champagne"[1]? Why qualify the name at
all?

All marketing people deserve to be coated in boiling hot greengage jam
and hung over a beehive.


[1] does this mean you can make wine fizzy by upending a bottomless
bucket over it?