How was rhubarb found to be edible when it tastes bad raw? (Part 2)

How was rhubarb found to be edible? It certainly isn’t palatable raw. (continued)

Guy Cox
Sydney, Australia

The idea that rhubarb “isn’t palatable raw” is totally bonkers. During the second world war, food supplies were scarce in England, so councils divided up unused land into allotments, let out to households at a nominal rent, to encourage people to grow their own vegetables. My grandfather used his to grow tobacco.

By 1952, when I was seven, many of these had been abandoned, and my mates and I used to explore them looking for something tasty to eat. Rhubarb was a prized …