Tuesday, December 1st

 Marilyn slaved in the kitchen all morning and, as a result, we each enjoyed a slice of Apple and Rhubarb Crumble Cake for afternoon tea.  If you did a time and motion study on the effort which went into the production of the cake you would come to the conclusion that it wasn't worth it.  And that would be a sensible thing to say.  Time would certainly be better spent in doing something else.  There are any number of bakeries out there who do a wonderful job of creating delicacies and who depend on our custom to stay viable. Surely, it's our patriotic duty to buy our cakes rather than bake them ourselves.

And yet, where can you buy an Apple and Rhubarb Crumble Cake?  I'm a great fan of rhubarb even though it seems to have fallen out of fashion.  I think I first enjoyed it back in Scotland where my grandfather grew it in his back yard.  I remember he used to use a wheelbarrow to cover it in bad weather.  I also remember the joke he used to tell, which is just as funny today as it was in 1950.  The man next door looked over the fence and said, "Your rhubarb's looking fine this year, Sandy.  Is it true that you put horse manure on it?"  

"Aye!" said Sandy.

"That's funny," said the neighbour. "We prefer ours with custard."

We've always been lucky that we have known people who grow rhubarb so I haven't had to buy the $5 bunches from Woolworths, but the other week I was given a couple of crowns by a fellow I met while working at the exams so,  as a new adventure I might start growing my own.  I fancy the new above-ground gardens to save the serious bending over and Jamie found a local teenager who is making suitable boxes from recycled pallets.  $40 seems reasonable for a 1m square box.

A 1m x 1m x 60cm box will need 24 Bunnings bags of top soil to fill it; at $4 each bag, that's $96.  But Jamie tells me the local nursery will sell me that volume of soil for $60 and lend me a trailer to bring it home.  That's at least $100 I've spent already, equivalent to at least 20 bunches of Woolies rhubarb which is always fresh and doesn't need any more manual labour that carrying it home.  Have I bitten off more than I can chew?