Focus: RHUBARB (Rheum Rabarbarum)

Rhubarb is botanically a vegetable - not a fruit - and is a member of the buckwheat family.  To many cooks and gardeners, rhubarb stands for all that is homegrown and homemade.  It is welcome as one of the first fresh foods widely available after a long winter.  It is especially user-friendly since with just a little care and feeding a plant can be productive for a few decades or more. It is often used in old fashioned pies, crisps, cobblers, cakes and sauces - earning it a reputation as midwestern comfort food.

Most rhubarb is grown in small backyard patches in areas with cold climates.  It needs a period of two or more months of mid-morning freezing temperatures to prepare for spring.  It is unusual to find large concentrations of rhubarb production - such as that found in Featherstone Farm's perennial rhubarb beds. There is such a thing as commercial rhubarb - the 2,000 acre (more or less)  "national crop" is clustered in various locations in Washington, Oregon, California and Michigan. There is even a Washington Rhubarb Growers Association.  There are a lot of rhubarb recipes - and some interesting rhubarb history -  on this web site.  http://www.rhubarbpiecapital.com/

The Rhubarb Capital of Minnesota is the little town of Lanesboro, just 15 miles west of Featherstone Farm.   Lanesboro hosts a rhubarb festival the first Saturday of June every year.  One of the festival events is a rhubarb tasting.  Creative cooks come up with new uses for rhubarb every year.  The festival website contains many good recipes.  http://www.rhubarbfestival.org/recipes.php

Nutrition
A cup of rhubarb has only 25 calories.  Rhubarb is 95% water and is a good source of calcium, potassium, dietary fiber, and vitamins A and C.  It contains significant amounts of lutein, a carotenoid which promotes eye health.  Do NOT eat the leaves, which contain oxalic acid, a poisonous substance.  A lethal dose would require a person to eat seven pounds of leaves - the reason why you have never read of someone dying from rhubarb poisoning. 

History and geography
Rhubarb is native to western China and came to the United States in the 1700's.  It grows prolifically in Siberia and the Himalayas and has long been a common food in many areas of the Middle East.  Rhubarb is grown in Iraq, where you might find it thinly sliced in a salad with pomegranate seeds and feta cheese or other savory dishes.  Cold drinks made with rhubarb juice are also common in Middle Eastern countries.

Medicinal and other uses
Rhubarb has long been known for its laxative effect - hence its reputation as a spring "tonic".  According to the Featherstone Farm cookbook,  dried rhubarb root has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Rhubarb stimulates the digestion and some even believe it is an aphrodisiac!

Rhubarb leaves can be used to scrub burnt areas on pots and pans to restore the shine.

Preparation and storage
Rhubarb leaves are usually removed prior to sale.  If they happen to still be attached to a stalk, remove and compost.  The leaves are not edible as they contain high levels of oxalic acid.  Rhubarb will keep - unwashed -  for about 10 days wrapped in a plastic bag in the vegetable bin in your refrigerator.  To prepare, simply trim off the root and stem ends, wash and slice.  No need to peel. 

Preservation
Rhubarb freezes extremely well and does not require blanching.  Wash, dry and slice the rhubarb in 1/2 inch pieces.  Spread out on a cookie sheet or baking pan and place in the freezer.  When the pieces are frozen, place in freezer bags or other freezer containers.  To use, just add frozen pieces to the recipe.
There are many recipes for rhubarb jam, conserve, marmalade and chutney if you want to preserve rhubarb in the form of condiments.

Recipes 

Special note: red v. green rhubarb.  Some people think red rhubarb is better.  I am not one of them.  Rhubarb that is pale pink or even greenish is quite edible and tasty.


Rhubarb Sauce -  (This is on the tart side. You can always add a bit more sugar to taste. I do not add any extra water because I prefer my rhubarb sauce on the thick side. If you want a thinner sauce – or a soup – just add some water or even orange juice.)
8 cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces (You can substitute chopped strawberries for about 2 cups of rhubarb. Add those near the end of cooking.)
1 ½ cups sugar
2 ¼ inch slices fresh ginger, optional
Mix together rhubarb and sugar in a nonreactive cooking pot. Let stand about half an hour. Stir a few times and add the ginger if you are using it. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat. Simmer gently just until rhubarb is tender. Best served chilled. This will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. It is good eaten plain or served on top of plain cake or ice cream. It can also be the fruit base for a cobbler or simply spread on toast or served with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Rhubarb Ketchup - This is the recipe used by Lanesboro’s Bethlehem Lutheran Church youth group every year at the Rhubarb Festival. It is great on hot dogs.
Ingredients:
4 cups diced fresh or frozen rhubarb
3 medium onions, chopped
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained
2 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. pickling spice (tied in a cheesecloth bag or in a strainer ball)
Mix all ingredients in a large nonreactive pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer about 1 hour until thickened. Cool. Refrigerate in covered containers. Yields about 6-7 cups.

Rhubarb Custard Pie
3 Eggs
3 T. Milk
2 C. Sugar (note from P. : You could cut this back to 1 1/2 cups if you wanted to.)
1/4 C. Flour
3/4 tsp. Nutmeg
4 C. Rhubarb, cut up
1 T. Butter
9 Inch Pie Crust and Top
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Beat eggs slightly and add milk. Mix sugar, flour and nutmeg; stir in. Mix in rhubarb. Pour into pastry lined pie pan. Dot with butter. Cover with top crust. Brush top crust with 1 T. milk. Bake 50-60 minutes until nicely browned. Serve warm or cold.

Tried and True - Rhubarb Sauce

You have to crawl before you walk.   So before you attempt a rhubarb custard pie, it is a good idea to know how to make good old basic Minnesota rhubarb sauce.   This simple but important knowledge has been passed down by generations of Grandmas.  And now I - a card carrying Minnesota Grandma - pass it on to you.

Before I get to the details of rhubarb sauce preparation, I would like to tell you the Featherstone rhubarb backstory.  So you will know where your CSA rhubarb came from.  I am the perfect person to tell you this story - since my husband, Frank Wright,  grew your rhubarb.  He is one of what is probably only a handful of professional Minnesota farmers.  Here is a video of him picking rhubarb. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mBYU4XsDd8

I also happen to be one of the four famous Rhubarb Sisters.  What? You never heard of us?  How can that be?  Have you been living in a cave?  We've been singing about rhubarb going on four years now.   check us out here  http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/features/photos/performances/2007/06/02/06.html

Plus I live in Lanesboro, the rhubarb capital of Minnesota.  We have a special Rhubarb Festival the first Saturday of June every year. http://www.rhubarbfestival.org/  I am not telling you all this to brag - because a Rhubarb Sister is nothing if not humble.  I tell you to establish my rhubarb cred.  I take my rhubarb seriously.  I know whereof I speak.

In a year or two, Featherstone Farm will be free from dependence on foreign rhubarb.  Featherstone is in the process of establishing their own perennial rhubarb crop in new fields.  So for now they found the best rhubarb guy around - Frank - and contracted with him to deliver about 1,200 pounds of rhubarb over the last two weeks.  Your  rhubarb was grown in the rich soil of our very large garden just a mile outside of Lanesboro, on the Root River.  About 15 miles from Featherstone.  The rhubarb in your CSA box was grown with love and care -- and lots of well composted horse manure.  Every stalk was hand harvested and field washed by either me or Frank.  (Mostly Frank)

Here are some pictures of this year's rhubarb harvest.  You need to pull the stalks from the bottom - no cutting.  (I think I need to work on my pulling form.)

 Frank is loading a bin of rhubarb on to the back of his pick up truck.  Love those arm muscles.

 Do you have a rhubarb plant somewhere at your house or apartment?  I hope so.  Because as wonderful as your CSA rhubarb is, in my opinion it is not enough.   If you don't have access to homegrown rhubarb, then check out your favorite farmers market.  And think about planting some for the future.  If you need a plant or two, let me know.  Maybe Frank could help you out.

In our house rhubarb sauce is a staple.  I freeze at least 10 quarts to get us through the winter.  We eat it plain for breakfast or as a simple supper dessert.  We spoon it over ice cream.  We plop in biscuit dough and bake it for rhubarb cobbler.  We add vinegar, onions, raisins and spices and make a chutney.  We put it in a blender with yogurt and ice cubes and maybe a few berries for a rhubarb smoothie.  We swirl it with whipped cream for rhubarb fool.  We steam some biscuit dough with the sauce for rhubarb grunt.  (A fruit grunt could also be called a slump.  Either way, it is steamed biscuit dough - it turns into dumplings -  with sweetened fruit sauce.  You could use apples or blueberries just as well as rhubarb.)

RHUBARB SAUCE RECIPE
5 cups rhubarb (can be fresh or frozen), cut into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
1 cup sugar
one or two 1/4 inch slices of fresh ginger (optional)
Mix rhubarb and sugar (and ginger if you are using it) in a non reactive saucepan and let sit about an hour.  Bring fruit slowly to a boil and simmer, uncovered, until rhubarb is soft but still retains some shape - about 10 minutes.  Taste - add a bit more sugar if desired.  Cool.  Store in refrigerator or freeze.
If you want to add strawberries or raspberries, do so about one or two minutes before you stop the cooking process.

Here is some rhubarb sauce to which a few handfuls of fresh strawberries was added in the final minute or two of cooking.  Doesn't it look good?  Sweet and tart at the same time.

Rhubarb Cake

I spent most of last Saturday at Featherstone Farm - it was our annual Spring Open House and farm tour day.  I had a great time talking with all kinds of people - "locals" and CSA shareholders from the Twin Cities alike.  Several families made the trip down to see where their food comes from.  Welcome to all the folks who are trying a CSA share for the first time and welcome back to those of you who have been practicing better living through vegetables for years.  We all have a lot to learn from "box veterans" like you.

In addition to having conversations with people, I also was serving my homemade rhubarb cake.  I think we went through about 180 pieces.  Some little kids had three or four pieces and that was okay with me.  You have to turn people on to rhubarb when they are young.  Vegetables too, for that matter.

In response to popular demand, here is my tried and true recipe for Rhubarb Cake.  I probably have made this over 100 times.  I served it to my Bed and Breakfast guests for years.  It is basically a simple buttermilk coffeecake.  It freezes well and is not too sweet.  You could eat it for breakfast or as a dessert or snack.

Ingredients for cake:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or 1 cup each white flour and whole wheat pastry flour)
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk (or maybe a bit more if the flour is on the dry side)
2 cups cut up rhubarb (about 1/2 inch slices)

Cream together butter and sugars.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Mix together all dry ingredients.  Add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk in two or three portions.  When batter is uniformly mixed, fold in rhubarb.  Spread in greased 9 x 13 baking pan.  Sprinkle on topping and bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes or until firm to the touch in the center and lightly browned on the sides.

Streusel topping:  mix together 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar until crumbly.  I like to add about 1/2 cup chopped black walnuts - the flavor is very compatible with rhubarb.  If you like nuts and don't have access to black walnuts, try English walnuts, almonds or even hazelnuts.  There is getting to be a small hazelnut growing industry in SE Minnesota and it is worth seeking out some Minnesota Grown hazelnuts.