Spring gardeners, can you guess...

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...what plant this is just now popping its head out of a section of my garden's still cold, still winter earth?

And don't you just love it when come Springtime all you have to do is scrape away the leftover wintered over muck to reveal what you planted last year (or years before) in all its coming (and tasty flavored, if in a somewhat old-timey way) glory? 

Hint: what's growing here is not often available at food stores and is sometimes combined with des fraises.)

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rhubarb

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Excellent! 

And what a funny plant it is with it's red celery like stalks and big elephant leaves (when full on). My eldest daughter has commented that it looks like something from the age of the dinosaurs. Combined with strawberries (des fraises) it makes for an excellent pie though I prefer it with raspberries fruit compote style.

Rhubarb is something of an old world fruit. (Actually, it's a vegetable. No matter what that one New York court declared in 1947.) For those who've never eaten it, it has a flavor unto itself. Tart but not altogether sour it tastes like, well, rhubarb.

An aside: My next door neighbor has confessed to, on occasion, making off with a stalk or two without my knowing. (I don't mind. I have 5 mature plants and he's a good neighbor.) Curiously, he's never tried cooking it. He just enjoys eating the raw stalks!