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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?
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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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.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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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...
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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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.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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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.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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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.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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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!
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: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.
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. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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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.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote: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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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.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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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.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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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.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Does no one else in my area have rhubarb pie for Thanksgiving?
The silverton area in Colorado (South San Juans) is full of rubarb. When I was backpacking out there, we collected it for TP. IT's the best natural TP ever.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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See, I think strawberry-rhubarb is a waste of rhubarb. I don't like the texture and taste the stewed strawberries impart! I like strawberry pie, love rhubarb pie, but never the twain shall meet!
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You're both nuts. Strawberry-rhubarb is a wondrous amalgam of two great things into something even better.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I know I'm nuts. I also put egg in my rhubarb pie, which my mom thought was a very weird idea until she ate some and said, "This is the BEST rhubarb pie I've ever had!!!"
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I can't believe there's a rhubarb thread, or that I'm actually posting in said rhubarb thread.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: Egg? Tell me your recipe.
2 cups rhubarb, in 1/2 inch pieces 3 Tbsp. flour 1 cup sugar 1 egg, lightly beaten 2 pie crusts (I use a vinegar pie crust, of course.) Egg wash or melted butter and sugar for pie crust, optional
Heat oven to 450 deg. F. Put pie crust in pan. Combine sugar and flour. Add egg and beat thoroughly. Add rhubarb and combine well. Pour mixture immediately into pie crust. Top with top crust and slit (or make a lattice top.) Coat crust with egg wash or butter to promote a nicely browned crust, if desired; if using a vinegar crust, you may want to sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 450 deg. F. for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 deg. F. and cook an additional 35-45 minutes, or until rhubarb is soft and pastry is golden-brown.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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