Save room for pie

Even though rhubarb is a vegetable stalk, it's almost exclusively eaten in sweets. Once promoted to Alaskan trappers to fight scurvy (it's high in vitamin C), rhubarb is most commonly found paired with strawberries in a crimson pie filling. It looks like dark red celery—choose deep red stalks that aren't too thick, otherwise they may be too fibrous. Those fibers cook down with plenty of sugar to make sweet-tart sauces and chutneys, though. Never eat the leaves, which are poisonous. And if you find yourself heading for the loo after ruminating on rhubarb, don't be alarmed; it has laxative properties.