When our favorite celebrity TV chef recently posted a strawberry-rhubarb dessert recipe, we thought it would be fun to try baking it. We quickly discovered that not only was it difficult to find fresh or frozen rhubarb at our local grocery stores or farmers’ markets, but when we did, it was quite expensive.

If you’ve never tried rhubarb, its stalks look a lot like pink or red celery, and it has a unique tartness that requires a good amount of sugar when used in cooking and baking. The plant was first cultivated in Asia for medical uses, but early settlers brought rhubarb with them in the 1700s and used it to create pies and sauces. The large leaves are not edible because of their high oxalic acid content.

A little research revealed that rhubarb is a hardy perennial vegetable that’s ideally suited for growing in Northeast Ohio. Equipped with instructions for growing these uniquely tart veggies from the horticulture educators at Ohio State University Extension, we decided to find a place for rhubarb in our backyard garden.

Rhubarb is usually grown from crowns or plants, available from local greenhouses and online nurseries but it can also be started from seed. Choose a planting site with well-drained soil, away from shade trees to allow for plenty of sunlight. Because the plants are large, averaging about 3 feet in height and width, allow about one-square yard per plant. It’s best to put them at one end of a vegetable garden where they won’t crowd other vegetables.

OSU experts recommend fertilizing established rhubarb plants with nitrogen twice a year, in the spring and after the final harvest. Remove any flower stalks that appear as the plants grow because they will deplete reserves that support vegetative growth.

Don’t plan to harvest rhubarb in its first year and take just a few stalks the second year to allow the plant to become established. After that, it should provide fruit from April through June for many years to come. Harvest by grasping the leafstalk near its base and pulling it slightly to one side carefully and gently.

Avoid cutting the stalk because this could result in crown rot. Pests are seldom a problem for rhubarb in the garden. Crown rot can occasionally be a problem in the home garden, but prevention is the best solution. Ascochyta leaf spot can sometimes affect rhubarb. Reduce the risk by removing leaf litter and dead or dying tissue around the plants from the previous growing season.

Hixenbaugh is an Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in Mahoning County.