Rhubarb = $$?

[deltadoc]

Our rhubarb patch is coming up very nicely again this year just outside our front door. Due to these posts, I'm going to appreciate my rhubarb this year instead of taking it for granted like before. Yes, as a kid in Iowa, the rhubarb patch grew up alongside the garage!!!!

As far as the sugar required, I going to share a secret that only my great grandmother seemed to know about. We use lemon juice with the rhubarb. For some reason, it seems to cancel out the tartness of the rhubarb, and the amount of sugar needed is reduced. In any event the combination of the lemon and rhubarb far exceeds the customary strawberry/rhubarb combination, at least imo.

I made a rhubarb pie for Jean-Claude Tindillier one time when he was owner of Le Petit Chef in St. Louis Park. Turned out rhubarb pie was his favorite dessert, and he told me that he had never thought to use lemon juice in making it.

He was so impressed that he went out into his personal orchard and picked pears and made me a pear Charlotte Rouse.

doc

[jsolomon]

Instead of strawberries, I suggest people try a rhubarb-raisin pie, too. The raisins have their own tartness and the tannins really bring something spectacular to the combination.

Besides, isn't it a misdemeanor to cook strawberries?

Edit to r/raisin/strawberries in a place or two.

Edited April 26, 2005 by jsolomon (log)

[forever_young_ca]

I must confess ignorance on this topic. I didn't know that people actually BOUGHT rhubarb. I have always had my own prolific plant in the back garden or friends who were more than ready to give the excess away for free from their plants.

Having just finished eating my second rhubarb pie of the season I must say it is a wonderful treat! There is nothing like spring rhubarb when it is at its peak of sweetness.

[kitwilliams]

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

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I, kitwilliams, hereby promise never to chew out any farmers for charging $2.99/lb (the going rate at my local market) for rhubarb, goddammit.

[kitwilliams]

if any southern california egulleteers happen to have excess rhubarb in their garden, just let me know and i'll be over with my machete.

note to forever young ca: i was sooooo disappointed to read that your "ca" was for canada and not california. disappointed for myself, but lucky you!

[Jim Dixon]

Oregon may have only 200 acres under commercial production, but if you added up the square feet occupied by all the backyard rhubarb, you'd probably get at least that much again. Before I got around to planting some a few years back, I'd just ask friends if they had any in their yard. It wasn't hard to get a ready supply this way.

I prefer mine straight, and I usually roast it after tossing with a little olive oil and salt. It gets tender in 15 or 20 minutes and holds its shape nicely. I eat it sprinkled with sugar or drizzled with maple syrup.

Jim

[yslee]

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.

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What makes your French Rhubarb Tart special, ludja? Any chance you could share the recipe? I adore rhubarb and I'm always looking for new ways to cook it.

[ludja]

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.

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What makes your French Rhubarb Tart special, ludja? Any chance you could share the recipe? I adore rhubarb and I'm always looking for new ways to cook it.

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Hi yslee,

Sorry for not getting back to you more quickly. It's a rhubarb frangipane tart from Linda Dannenberg's Paris Boulangerie. So basically, in a partially prebaked tart crust you add in a ground almong custard and pieces of rhubarb before finishing the baking.

I copied it from a library book but can't track down the copy right now! I definately want the recipe so when I get the book out again I'll link to a post on it.

[chardgirl]

if any southern california egulleteers happen to have excess rhubarb in their garden, just let me know and i'll be over with my machete.

Yes, this is the best way to find rhubarb! best of luck to you. If my parents had any in their westside back yard, I'd send you over.

cg

[scrumdiddlyumptious]

Mine's not quite ready to pick yet, so it could just be that it's a bit too early in the season for prices to be reasonable. Give it a few weeks!

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Organic rhubarb at Puget Sound Consumer's Co-op in Seattle is only 1.99/lb as of today. (Fremont store, for the locals)

Pat

[WolfChef]

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?

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I mow my wifes rhubarb right to the dirt and fein ignorance everytime. Sometimes I say "Oh, sorry thought it was the peonies." Then she gets that look. Not a big fan of peonies either, to me they stink.

[kitwilliams]

I mow my wifes rhubarb right to the dirt and fein ignorance everytime.  Sometimes I say "Oh, sorry thought it was the peonies."  Then she gets that look.  Not a big fan of peonies either, to me they stink.

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I'd watch my back if I were you, AgaCooker!

[mjr_inthegardens]

Update in Brooklyn...

the greengrocer on Atlantic Avenue near Sahadis had a big box of bright red and verdant green 'barb for $2.99 a pound on Sunday morning.

I may visit during the week to pick some up.

[kitwilliams]

I was just bemoaning the fact that I have never found forced rhubarb in this country so, thought I'd ask on eGullet if anyone knew otherwise.  Turns out, I asked the same question eleven years ago (see above posts from 2005).  

 

So...eleven years have passed.  Does anyone know where I can find forced rhubarb in the USofA?

[pastrygirl]

I believe richter farms here in the NW starts the season with hothouse then moves to field grown rhubarb. 

Edited February 24, 2016 by pastrygirl
Damn autocorrect (log)

[boilsover]

17 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

I believe richter farms here in the NW starts the season with hothouse then moves to field grown rhubarb. 

 

With the absence of winter in the PNW (daffodils blooming in February!), you should have rhubarb soon enough...

[pastrygirl]

5 hours ago, boilsover said:

 

With the absence of winter in the PNW (daffodils blooming in February!), you should have rhubarb soon enough...

 

The hothouse rhubarb is usually out in time for Valentine's Day.  It's been in stores here for a few weeks now.  Look, here's some on Richter's Fb page, they are in Puyallup, about an hour's drive south of Seattle: 

 

 

[Smithy]

I spotted rhubarb in a Yuma (Arizona) grocery store - mainstream chain, not specialty - last week.

[kbjesq]

I am sadly now in Florida, for almost 20 years. For many of those years, I have asked my local grocer to please get me some rhubarb. Initially, the response was, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Finally, about 3 years ago,  he did get me some rhubarb. However it was $5.99 per pound! 

PS I grew up in New England where rhubarb is taken for granted 

[Deryn]

I tried to grow rhubarb in western NC but failed miserably - just too hot for it there (and apparently the plants I put in also have an allergy to black walnut poison). And what was available down there was usually sad looking, only for a very short period and very pricey. I thought it was brought from up north but it is interesting to learn that it may have been hothouse grown.

 

Here in NS, I have a large patch of wonderful rhubarb that was imported from Britain (so the story goes - over 100 years ago when this house was built to house the British engineers brought over to man the Commercial Cable (telegram) company) and is still going strong (with no help from me). I get almost a full summer out of mine too before it gives up the ghost. I grew rhubarb quite well in Ontario but nothing like this stuff.

 

I have promised to dig up a bit for a lady who works in the produce department at the grocery store I go to 70 miles from here as soon as spring allows - as apparently even around these parts, rhubarb of this longevity and quality is a rare gem. Always good to have an 'in' with the produce department I figure - I get organics magically marked down sometimes, so far just on the strength of a promise to transplant.  She also owns a small farm on Cape Breton Island - and has goats and chickens (I will be getting fresh organic eggs for free in trade as well). I really, really hope the rhubarb takes in her garden. Oh and she is also Jamaican and has promised to teach me more about jerk and other foods from that area. Quite the happenstance that I bumped into her one day when complaining about the lack of lemongrass.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Deryn (log)