People who grow hard-to-use veggies should only give them away cooked and ready to eat!

[CoalTit]

I'm in the southern hemisphere and I've received a great big bunch of rhubarb to take home after a family get-together. I said it was too much to take home on the train, but then a relative turned up at my house with it a couple of days later.
I do like rhubarb, in small quantities, with apple and custard, but I'm going to be buying and stewing fruit all winter to use this lot up. No-one else wanted it because it's horrible by itself.
I feel indignant.
I'm always grateful to be given pumpkin, but I met someone who says she accepts pumpkin to be polite, then throws it away because it's too much trouble to peel and cook.
And then there are the zucchini/courgettes that have got enormous and woody because people plant too many plants then don't pick them while they're still nice to eat
AIBU?

Rhubarb looks massive until you cook it! It cooks down to a small amount which is easily put into the freezer and takes little space.

Make some stewed rhubarb with sugar added. Put in small tub(s) in freezer and use for breakfast with oats/yogurt/cereal etc. Love rhubarb!

In many places it's just normal thing to do. Nothing about getting rid without guilt. Op is in southern hemisphere somewhere, it might be just normal thing there to share.

Make it into wine, rhubarb is lovely. Marrow is very pleasant, but you do have to strain it well due to the fibres. Carrots make a really pleasant wine it tastes like sherry! Any older, woodier vegetables or fruit can be made into really nice wine.

Oof you would hate me- I have a glut of globe artichokes. No one else but me likes them. I am always veeery generous with my crop. Would you like some?!

You could always leave them outside your house with a sign that they are free. Some person will take them happily. Best to do that than to put unwanted fresh homegrown veg in the bin which is criminal!

It isnt about guilt it is about seasonality. Things tend to produce at one time and then produce loads.

I would be very happy to be your neighbour! Delicious!

Yes please! I'd take artichokes over rhubarb any day, rhubarb is Satan's vegetable.

It's a normal thing to do here, Tyneside, nothing to do with which " hemisphere" you are in.

Sometimes, it is.

@CandyEnclosingInvisible Nevertheless sometimes I still find a bleeding marrow the size of a dachshund under a leaf because the bastards HIDE**

😂😂😂OMG this is SO true! Masters of disguise!

Ask her to let a couple of courgettes go to marrows for you and stuff them with mince like you’d make for a cottage pie. They take on the flavour of the mince and are much tastier than courgettes.

I’m sure the rhubarb gift was kindly meant. Because my DH is particularly fond of rhubarb, it never hangs around here. And the person who couldn’t be bothered to prepare a pumpkin - well, I’ve seen the ready-prepared stuff in supermarket freezers, but really, it’s not that difficult. I understand supermarkets sell many frozen chips, but it’s not rocket science to cut your own! If I knew you had an antipathy to cooking, though, I’d make your rhubarb into a crumble for you.

I had rhubarb growing at my previous house and used to make a wicked spicy chutney and rhubarb and ginger jam.

I don’t understand the obsession with rhubarb as a dessert. You have to put so much sugar in it to stop it taking the skin off your mouth with sourness that you can feel your teeth dissolving. Same with gooseberries. Fruit should be naturally sweet.

I was expecting you to be talking about gourds or loofahs or something! Just cook the rhubarb down with some sugar and freeze until you want to use it? It’s such a waste for that person to accept pumpkins and things and then throw them away. The courgettes I kind of agree with because the big ones aren’t that nice but I would either not accept them or google recipes for marrow (which is what the courgettes turn into). Next time say a firm no and let someone else enjoy the free food

Don't make excuses about trains etc, simply say you don't want it.

I had an allotment for 10 years - the only reliable way to get rid of stuff was to leave it in a big box at work - it would all go. (large office).

A friend has about 8 apple trees - she didn't plant them - there are 2 of them. She leaves boxes outside on the path - I take builders buckets of them for a friend who has horses - another friend takes a box to make chutney and jam. But she's still left with wheelbarrows full that end up on her compost heap.

Rhubarb is OK....nicest made into rhubarb vodka I found.

Make rhubarb gin - delicious.

Oh now I want rhubarb crumble!! Stew it and freeze it to use through the year. Lovely on ice cream too.

@CandyEnclosingInvisible Here is the bastard! 😂

You don’t have to accept the free food. Rhubarb is easy… just macerate with sugar and turn it into a crumble, pie or cake. Freeze it cut up and just use when you want it.

If you don’t want it say no or take it to a compost bin.

You sound a bit like my in laws who have this terror of throwing away food. They’ll eat something they dislike over and over just to avoid throwing it away. I often say I’ll take it off their hands and chuck it myself to spare them the guilt. If it’s fruit and veg I do have a compost bin thankfully so it goes in there.

This is the sort of thing where you need to get better at saying no.

“No thank you, I don’t want any rhubarb”

or even “I only want (small specific amount) because I won’t be able to eat more than that”

Making excuses about not being able to take it on the train just gives the impression that you’d actually really like the rhubarb and it’s only the transport problem stopping you from accepting it.

Rhubarb gin is delicious . As is rhubarb fool - quick and easy. And a good crumble can’t be beaten. It also makes a nice ‘upside down’ cake.

Do you like cocktails OP? I've got a very nice rhubarb sour recipe!