This is topic Why is it so hard to find rhubarb? in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
After more than a week of searching, today I finally located teeny-tiny bags of "organic" frozen rhubarb at one of the upscale, pricier grocery stores.

Bleah.

Used to be I could just go to Farm Fresh or Krogers or even Food Lion and find some.

Does no one else in my area have rhubarb pie for Thanksgiving?
 

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Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
 
Or maybe it was so hard to find because everybody has it.
 

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Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
For Thanksgiving? Probably not. Rhubarb pie is more of a spring thing. As far as finding rhubarb, I find it rather easily. I walk out my back door, go 15 paces East by South-East, and it practically attacks me. I've mailed it to various hatrackers who can't get fresh rhubarb in their area, if you remind me next spring I'll send you a priority mail box full and you can cut it up and freeze it for yourself for Thanksgiving. It is organic, too.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
Rhubarb isn't really in "season".

I've discovered that our local "upscale" Albertsons and Ralphs stores carry it fresh practically all year (they have a supplier, I guess, who grows it in a hothouse.)

I've never actually seen it frozen, although I've looked...
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Rhubarb isn't really in "season".

We've always bought it frozen, so that wasn't a concern.

I've never actually seen it frozen, although I've looked...

Up until this year, I was able to find it frozen at most grocery stores, usually in the same section where frozen berries and chilled toppings are kept.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
Yeah, I've looked there for three years and never found it. In two cities. I know it exists, I've just never seen it at "my" stores.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
It's all a plot against us rhubarb-lovers. I just know it.
 

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Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
 
What the heck is rhubarb?
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
I suppose I should expect this from the man who has never eaten blackberries.

Next time you come to town I'm taking you to Pie 'N Burger and making you eat rhubarb pie.
 

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Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
 
I just read the Wiki. So it's an herb...that's eaten as a fruit...

{head explodes}
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
It's not so much an herb as a vegetable.

The texture is kind of like really woody celery. The flavor is tart with an underlying taste of... rhubarb.

It's just unique.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
(Oh, and it's eaten as a vegetable, too. You can roast chickens with it and stuff.)
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Sweetened with sugar and baked in a pie, it's Heavenly.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
Indeed.
 

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
I get the best strawberry-rhubarb jam from the local farmer's market. Rhubarb is really easy to grow, and relatively easy to cook with - I wish it were more common in the US.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
It's extremely common in parts of the U.S. It's just that in most places where cooking with it is common, they don't have to sell it because everyone or their neighbor has it growing in the backyard!
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by ketchupqueen:
Yeah, I've looked there for three years and never found it. In two cities. I know it exists, I've just never seen it at "my" stores.

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And the stores I used to see it haven't had any for quite a while -- it may be as much as three years.

ElJay's rhubarb is quite excellent. The local supermarkets' supply is good, but not nearly as good. And it costs way more than what I paid ElJay.
 

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Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
 
Rhubarb custard pie is my favorite pie. Every year I petulantly demand that my mother make an extra one that I can lord over and refuse to share with Other People.

Since I wasn't home for Thanksgiving she has already promised to make one for Christmas. Muahahahahaha.
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 
When I grew some as a kid, we couldn't get rid of it! I am not kissing....my dad tried everything, including the lawnmower.


All THAT did was double the size of the rhubarb patch next year.
 

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Posted by Jaiden (Member # 2099) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Kwea:
I am not kissing....my dad tried everything, including the lawnmower.

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Posted by DeathofBees (Member # 3862) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by porcelain girl:
Rhubarb custard pie is my favorite pie. Every year I petulantly demand that my mother make an extra one that I can lord over and refuse to share with Other People.

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Recipe, please! <--directed to pgirl's mom.
 

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Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
 
Rhubarb is a great pie fruit, because of its tart taste, that becomes heavenly when sweetened. Strawberries can be added, too.

The rhubarb plant is very hardy, and bears all during the growing season, so long as you remove the seed stalks to prevent it from bolting. It can be eaten raw, if you develop a taste for it. Even then, do not eat too much of it raw.

Never eat the leaves of rhubarb, just the succulent stalks. The leaves are so high in oxalic acid, they can be ground up and mixed in solution with water and limestone (pebbles, or any such source), and give you a slurry of dissolved limestone. The Incas are believed to have used this method of dissolving rocks, then pouring the slurry into forms. As the solution dried out and hardened like cement, it would give you something that seems like native limestone. Some people believe this is how they got the huge limestone blocks for the walls and temples that are high up in the Andes mountains, where they could not possibly have been quarried and transported there.
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 
Rhubarb gives you the runs raw.


Trust me, that is experience speaking.
 

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Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
 
I probably shouldn't have called rhubarb a pie fruit, since actually it is the stalk of the plant. (Duh.)

Kwea, that is probably your body's way of protecting you from consuming too much oxalic acid--which is in the stalk, though not nearly so much as in the leaves. Since oxalic acid dissolves calcium, I wonder what effect it might have in connection with osteoporosis. When I used to eat rhubarb raw as a kid, I would only eat one stalk, at most.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
I get horrifically sick if I eat more than one bite of raw rhubarb.

And when my grandma was growing up, "pie plant" was what rhubarb was called.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
I love rhubarb, and am happy to eat it stewed with no sugar, just a dollop of plain yogurt on top. Then again, I like to suck lemons, so your mileage may vary.

I can always find some frozen, but fresh, only in springtime.
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 
Yeah, it can be harsh raw. It depends.


 

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Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Puffy Treat:


Does no one else in my area have rhubarb pie for Thanksgiving?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Tante Shvester:
Egg? Tell me your recipe.

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