Rhubarb = $$?

[flavoradded]

I was flabbergasted yesterday to see my bag of anemic rhubarb flash up on the register at Whole Foods (Union Square, Manhattan) reading $12.98. That was a few pounds at $4.98/lb!!!! I thought maybe it was just some Whole Foods related pricing darkness, but at my local super market (Tops on the Waterfront, Brooklyn), some healthier-looking rhubarb cost $4.29/lb. What gives? I know rhubarb grows like a weed in this climate, and I thought it was supposed to be in season from April to September? How can it be this expensive?

[eje]

Grew up in the midwest myself, where rhubard also grows like weeds. I have always been philosophically opposed to spending money to buy it; but, gave in this weekend due to an excess of strawberries. Didn't pay attention to the cost. Will check the next time I go to the market. After enjoying fresh strawberry rhubarb jam for a couple days now, I'm thinking I might have get a plant for my garden.

[carswell]

On Saturday, I paid C$5 for five or six stalks of rhubarb, the first of the season. At least it was beautifully fresh and tender. I didn't ask about its provenance but suspect it may have come from a hothouse, which would partly explain the expense. If not, it was shipped in, since it's still early spring up here (the first crocuses are finally blooming and no trees yet have leaves). And you always pay more for the first of anything.

[chow guy]

I don't see much of it grown by home gardeners anymore, which might have something to do with a liabilty issue since leaves are poisionous and we are living in such litigious times.

When I was growing up, everybody seemed to have scads of it, for some strange reason, growing next to the garage.

"Whole Paycheck" always charges what the traffic will allow. I've seen it at local grocery stores for alot less.

[rich]

With the cost of fuel headed to $60, everything will be a lot more expensive this year. Fuel prices eventually effects every industry.

Get used to it - it's just the price of creating a war.

[jsolomon]

Sheesh, y'all travel to Nebraska and you can pick all you want out of my mom's patch...

[Rachel Perlow]

I checked my regular market. They don't even have fresh rhubarb now. Frozen can be had for $2.50 per pound.

[flavoradded]

Sheesh, y'all travel to Nebraska and you can pick all you want out of my mom's patch...

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Awww! See, that's what I'm talking about! Kiss my rhubarb crisp, Whole Foods!

[kitwilliams]

At the downtown Long Beach, CA farmer's market, a few years ago, I went to a stall with the name "Rhubarb Farms" emblazoned on their umbrella. I looked at their piles of produce and asked where the rhubarb was. "We don't grow rhubarb" was the young woman's response. I told her they'd better change their name. An elderly woman had overheard our conversation and told me that she knew where I could get some. She kindly gave me directions to her house and I met her there a few minutes later where we went out to her back garden and cut enough rhubarb for two big pies. And she wouldn't take any money for it. Ahhh, the kindness of strangers.

I've been paying $2.98/lb for rhubarb at Plowboys Market in Huntington Beach. Always end up making compote with the little bit of rhubarb that won't fit into the pie. And now, my new favorite breakfast is a croissant with rhubarb compote. It's almost better than the pie itself!

[naguere]

My Webpage

In England most retail rhubarb is produced in forcing sheds based in the North East of England, Wakefield for instance , growing in the dark and harvested by canlelight. They say that at the height of the growing season, stood in a shed you can hear it growing.

All this effort produces delicate, flavourful rhubard, of which we are prepared to pay a premium.

Garden grown on the other hand, rich in oxalic acid can be had by anyone for not much money (if you grow it yourself) http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11144502...2_1137_5260.jpg

Edited to apologise for multiple images... thats a load of rhubarb

Edited April 25, 2005 by naguere (log)

[kitwilliams]

Naguere:

The forced rhubarb that you produce over there is not only delicious, but the pale pink of it is STUNNINGLY beautiful!

Does anyone know if we do the same anywhere in the US? I've never seen rhubarb here that compares to the beauty of English forced rhubarb.

[mjr_inthegardens]

ATTEMPTED

to buy some rhubarb for a crumble in Brooklyn, NY this weekend.

None in sight at produce place next to sahadis, none for sale at Park Natural on Court.

Steve's CTown between 5th and 6th Ave -- 5 pounds of big stalked barb in evidence. At register rings up for.... wait for it....

$9.99 / lb.

GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE WITH THAT NONSENSE.

Made Apple Crumble instead.

-MJR

[Really Nice!]

With the cost of fuel headed to $60, everything will be a lot more expensive this year. Fuel prices eventually effects every industry.

Get used to it - it's just the price of creating a war.

←

And if it's coming from California you're going to pay heavily too with all that rain they had down there over the winter.

For example, we're being quoted $22 per kilo of spinach and the quality is really poor. This is the wholesale purveyor's price.

[Kevin72]

And if it's coming from California you're going to pay heavily too with all that rain they had down there over the winter.

For example, we're being quoted $22 per kilo of spinach and the quality is really poor. This is the wholesale purveyor's price.

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Not to sidetrack, but is this also why the artichokes this year are still so pricey? I paid $12 for 4 of them the other day.

[rooftop1000]

I think I have some in my yard in NJ....just not 100% sure

tracey

[flavoradded]

ATTEMPTED

to buy some rhubarb for a crumble in Brooklyn, NY this weekend.

None in sight at produce place next to sahadis, none for sale at Park Natural on Court.

Steve's CTown between 5th and 6th Ave -- 5 pounds of big stalked barb in evidence. At register rings up for.... wait for it....

$9.99 / lb.

GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE WITH THAT NONSENSE.

Made Apple Crumble instead.

-MJR

←

OMG!! That is out of control.

I get the feeling it has something to do with supermarkets buying their produce from big distributors and not really making contact with local growers? Like, all the rhubarb on the east coast is coming from Argentina or something, just because they can get it year round. I'm just shocked, because I thought that rhubarb was supposed to be something like the zucchini of spring.

Another factor contributing to some imported produce costs may be the sad state of the dollar.

In any case, I'm going to try to find rhubarb at the Farmer's Market. Will report back.

[ludja]

It doesn't explain the whole picture but at least some of it is timing. I needed a little rhubarb for a dish ~ a month ago and I think it was ~ $5:00/lb at my local produce market (Milk Pail in Mountain View, CA) that has very good selection and prices. I stopped by today and it was $2.49/lb.

For comparison though, Whole Foods has it out here at the same price as NYC: 4.99/lb. Another local market (Sunnymount in Sunnyvale, CA has it at 3.99/lb).

I run into this game each year--looking for rhubarb (b/c I like it alot) and it always seems to be expensive. I thought maybe it was b/c it's grown back East or something.

AFter seeing this thread today I decided to try and figure out where it is grown:

Rhubarb is a cool season, perennial crop. It requires temperatures below 40 F to break dormancy and to stimulate spring growth and summer temperatures averaging less than 75 F for vigorous vegetative growth. The Northern U.S. and Canada are well suited for rhubarb production. In the United states it grows best in the northern states from Maine south to Illinois and west to Washington state. Once planted, rhubarb plantings remain productive for 8 to 15 years.

In the United States, commercial production is concentrated in Washington (275 Acres), Oregon (200 Acres), and Michigan (200 Acres), with small commercial acreage in many northern states field and greenhouse forced production. A good commercial yield is 15 tons and an exceptional yield is about 18 tons. Red varieties usually yield about 50% of the green types; however, if the crop is harvested twice in one year, total yields will increase about 50%.

link

Also,

Washington Rhubarb is harvested from hothouses January through March, then hand cut from fields April through September. The colorful plant is grown in the Puyallup valley, in the shadow of Mount Rainer.

Seventy percent of Washington's field rhubarb crop is frozen using the individually quick frozen (IQF) process. This rhubarb is packed in 30 to 50 pound containers for use in the baking industry.

link (halfway down).

So it seems like a large percentage of the crop is frozen... I've never used frozen rhubarb; does it work well in some dishes? Seems like it might work in crisps, but I wouldn't want to use it for my French Rhubarb Tart or in a compote.

Growing up, we and a lot of family and neighbors had plants in the backyard that grew like hell so I never thought of it as special or expensive. If the use of it has declined in home baking I wonder if that has also contributed to the outrageous prices.

edited to add: I need to see if it is at any of my farmer's markets this weekend. From the article above it doesn't seem like it would be a big NoCal crop...

Edited April 25, 2005 by ludja (log)

[jsolomon]

I've used frozen rhubarb side-to-side with fresh, and they seem to perform the same.

[jgarner53]

I've been hunting fruitlessly (ha ha) for weeks for rhubarb. Not at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market. Not at the Alemany (cheaper) farmer's market. Not at my local produce stand. Finally found some sad looking stalks at the local supermarket for $3/lb. I don't even think they had enough there for a pie.

Artichokes seem scarce so far this season, too.

But I am really, really jonesing for some rhubarb!

[touaregsand]

With the cost of fuel headed to $60, everything will be a lot more expensive this year. Fuel prices eventually effects every industry.

Get used to it - it's just the price of creating a war.

←

Average price for 87 unleaded in LA is in the range of $2.65-$2.75 per gallon. I don't do much driving around to save money on groceries anymore.

[kitwilliams]

Growing up, we and a lot of family and neighbors had plants in the backyard that grew like hell so I never thought of it as special or expensive.  If the use of it has declined in home baking I wonder if that has also contributed to the outrageous prices.

My dad, a Depression baby, despises rhubarb. I've heard others of this generation refer to rhubarb as "pie plant" so perhaps it was so readily available during those years that it was the only filling available for pies (although it needs so much sugar that it couldn't have been inexpensive to make). Can anyone shed some light on this?

[JSD]

My mother hates rhubarb too, but I think it's because she had it once without enough sugar. Consequently, I never had rhubarb until my neighbor gave me some plants from dividing hers, about seven or eight years ago. Wow! We really love it and I'm probably going to pick the first of the season this week. Last fall I divided my two plants, and gave away some, and now have four new plants of my own. We live in the high desert and it really thrives here.

The people I know who love rhubarb have mostly eastern or midwestern roots. Our area is has a lot of transplanted Californians who don't seem to have any experience growing it.

[donk79]

In little towns in the midwest rubarb is still reasonable at least. Witnessed tonight in Troy, Ohio, "Rubarb, regular price $2.99/lb. On sale for $1.50/lb." Not that I bought any. What's growing in my backyard has that price beat by a mile.

[Catherine Iino]

In Killingworth, CT, the rhubarb should be ready to start harvesting in another couple of weeks; it's just starting to leaf out. I'm betting the price will come down soon.

[chardgirl]

We own an organic farm in central CA: we don't grow rhubarb or pickling cukes because so many people have fond memories of these easy to grow crops coming from a bountiful neighbors (grandmas, etc) garden in their youth they don't want to pay for it. We still have to pay the fuel costs, labor costs (ouch!) and so on to grow and bring these things to market, so we keep things simple and just don't grow them because we don't want to be chewed out at the farmers market for high prices for cheap crops. It's easier not to grow them at all!

cg