It is finally spring and that means all things rhubarb coming your way. Rhubarb is one of my favourite flavours to use in baking and it is best used fresh not frozen. This recipe for Rhubarb Loaf is one that I posted last spring but I have lightened it up and reduced the sweetness so that this loaf is now a perfect breakfast. Rhubarb is technically a vegetable so eating it for breakfast is definitely a good thing. Those little red gems of tartness add amazing taste but definitely need a little sugar to make the flavour zing.

Now one of the downsides to the rhubarb being ready in the garden for picking also means that the bugs are also hatching outside. So as I was yanking the stalks of rhubarb out of the garden tonight the first black-fly of the season was buzzing in my ear. Yuck – I really hate bugs, but I really like rhubarb. The price we pay for yummy things. Now if you don’t live in Northern Ontario I am not sure you can understand what we deal with in the spring.  Swarms of black-flies that take chunks of flesh out of you, fly in your ears, up your nose – this is what the warm spring sun brings us. You would wonder why we would even look forward to spring!

But then the Rhubarb Loaf comes out of the oven and those nasty little flying bugs seem worth the painful bites.  Especially after you eat 2 or 3 slices still nice and warm.  So as soon as your rhubarb is long enough to yank from the earth make sure you pick some and mix up the batter for these loaves – it will make you forget the fact that the black flies are ready to descend on us. Spring is finally here!