Elizabeth Corser

Elizabeth CorserCole Harbor Farm Museum471 Poplar Dr.Dartmouth, NS, B2W 4L2

902/434-0222farmmuseum@ns.ssympatico.ca

A special thank-you to Elizabeth Corser, Executive Director of The Cole Harbour Heritage Farm, who found time to write the script for our play.It was this time last year when Elizabeth, Barb Coady and myself sat around the table in the Farm's tearoom collaborating on what events and details we felt deserved to be in the play.

Contact: Elizabeth Corser

Email: farmmuseum@ns.sympatico.ca

"It's very, very hardy, and I guess that's one of the reasons it does so well in a cool climate," says Elizabeth Corser, director of the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm Museum.

"It's the first thing that comes up, so it was great when people didn't have access to all of the produce you can get now at a modern supermarket."

The metro farm has been harvesting rhubarb since early May, making desserts (you can sample them Saturday evening), rhubarb relish and freezing it for off-season pies.

"It does need to be cooked, and it does need to be sweetened," says Corser, who likes it stewed with a bit of cream.

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It's an unusual plant - one of few with edible stalks; its leaves are toxic - that's at its best until about the end of June and a "decent" size when it's between one- and two feet high, says Corser.

It's pulled, not cut, and is always sour.The two small patches at Cole Harbour Heritage Farm Museum (a site that dates back to the early 1800s and features a blacksmith shop, barns, gardens and livestock) yield more than enough for its purposes.

"With rhubarb, anybody who has it always has lots - they're always trying to give you rhubarb," says Corser, comparing it to the late-summer zucchini.

And while it will go to seed eventually, she says it's been known to survive for years, even decades, on abandoned farms.

"I've never heard of a rhubarb crop failing," she says."It will do better if you dig it up and set it out again and give it some fertilizer … but (to start) you just get a root from somebody and off it goes."

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

1 litre (4 cups) rhubarb, cut in 1/2-inch pieces

Elizabeth Corser Cole Harbour Heritage Farm Museum 434-0222

Elizabeth Corser

(902) 434-0222

The menu "has evolved over time," says farm museum director Elizabeth Corser, who has been on the lookout for farm-style recipes during the 16 years the tea room has been operating."Simple, country and wholesome" is the standard for Corser, who also does marketing for the farm.

A regular item is the chicken pot pie, "for people who don't want red meat."A lot depends, as well, on what is in season.

"Most of the things on that menu have just evolved," says Corser.
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On trips to England, Corser checked out a variety of ploughman's lunches and found "they were a lot fancier.
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"I have this thing about not wasting anything," says Corser.
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"We've been using lettuce all summer," says Corser.
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"Our dressings have a lot of lovage and chives get used a lot," adds Corser.

Eggs from the farm's hens are used in the kitchen."Sometimes we have to buy them because we don't have that many hens," says Corser, "but generally we use our own."
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"People have to give us a heads-up on the high tea (yet another variation), because we make a few extra things," Corser says.
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"We do evening things, showers, staff parties, product launches, wedding rehearsal dinners, wedding anniversaries," says Corser.For such gatherings, a cold plate is often a menu choice."You wouldn't come into the tea room and order a cold plate," says Corser, "That is the kind of meal people want for special things."

"We have a good crew," says farm director Elizabeth Corser, sitting in the sunny Rose and Kettle Tea Room of the former Harris house, built by the Settle family about the mid-19th century.
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"We apply in February or March each year," says Corser, "and towards the end of May they tell us what we've got in the way of grants.