Since sugar became a common kitchen staple the late 19th century, one of the usual ways to save summer fruits for the winter was to add sugar. Some fruits, like peaches, can be canned as halves or slices, but rhubarb turns to mush when cooked, so pieces do not can well. Happily, there is Rhubarb Jam: tart and sweet, it is delicious on toast or English Muffins. In the dead of winter, this jam will remind you of June. At this year’s Rhubarb Festival there was a contest for the best Rhubarb Jam — spread the goodness!
Such a meal: bacon, yogurt with berries, and English muffin with butter and Rhubarb Jam.
Rhubarb Jam, recipe from Wild Preserves by Joe Freitus
5 cups jam
need 1-cup canning jars + lids
2 pounds rhubarb stalks – the redder, the better ¾ cup water
Chop into 1/2-inch pieces, put in saucepan with water. Bring to boil, then simmer until tender
Run through a food mill, measure 3 cups sauce.
3 cups sauce 4 c white sugar
Put sauce in a large saucepan with sugar, mix well, bring to a boil.
6 oz liquid fruit pectin
Stir in pectin, keep mixture boiling 1 minute. Take off heat.
Skim off any foam, pour into hot, sterilized jelly jars and seal with canning lids.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.
If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.
The next blog installment will be posted on August 27, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
In the novel In Old Bellaire, set in the actual town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the 1860s, a dinner party is held. Mary Johnson Dillon, the author, has the young ladies of the family hosting local friends and dashing officers from the near-by army post. The menu is described in detail and it includes one tantalizing item: “Grape Mousse” for dessert. My mother set out to track down this unheard-of delicacy and she found it: the ‘mousse’ was a frozen combination of grape jelly and whipped cream. In the summer, my mother would serve this to guests as an easy-to-prepare, make-ahead, delightful dessert.
One day recently, I thought to revive the old recipe, but having no grape jelly, I substituted Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam and it was a great success.
A Milano cookie was inserted before freezing for an added treat.
The recipe is simplicity itself:
Sv 4-6
ramekins or wine coupes
1 cup whipping cream
With electric beaters, whip until almost forming peaks.
4-6 oz strawberry-rhubarb jam
Add jam and continue to beat until incorporated.
Distribute among ramekins or wine coupes. Freeze 2 hrs.
Try this old-time dessert this summer — you are sure to like it.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.
If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.
The next blog installment will be posted on July 30, 2024. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Planning is well underway for this year’s festival, less than a month away! The Library Trustees and Staff have been working hard, in this the first year that the Rhubarb Festival has been run by the group. In the past, the planning was done by interested friends; then by the Town’s Recreation Committee; then by the Friends of the Library [that’s an official, separate entity]. This year, each Trustee has a ‘portfolio’ and they are grateful for support from the Town of Bennington, the Select Board, the Town Administrator, and generous sponsorship from local businesses. Proceeds from the Rhubarb Festival benefit the Library’s Building Fund.
On Saturday June 1 — always the 1st Saturday of June — more than a dozen vendors will assemble at Sawyer Park in the early morning to set up their tents. They will be selling a variety of wares, with many items being rhubarb-themed. The Festival starts at 10 am, so no early-birds please.
When the gates open, parking for patrons is free. Select-man Tony Parisi will supervise the incoming cars, along with his sons. Visitors will enter the fair-ground through the Welcome Tent. There they will encounter the Rhubarb General Store, dedicated to all things Rhubarb. Purchase jams or relishes or rhubarb soda. Want to grow your own rhubarb? Ready-to-plant crowns will be on sale, as well as fertilizer to help them grow. Just want enough rhubarb to make a pie at home? Stalks will be sold in bundles. Also on offer will be raffle tickets for items from vendors, for gift cards from local businesses, and a Rhubarb Pie Gift Basket filled with everything you could need to make a pie — including a rhubarb plant.
For the children, there will be the Petting Area on top of the hill, where Glory Be! and Dollar Shy Farms will show various animals. There will be a Story Walk, featuring the book Rhubarb by Stephen Cosgrove. A Children’s Activity Tent, staffed by the Craig Family, is always a hit. The Rhubarb Trivia activity will be hosted by Haley Tramposh. And don’t forget the Hollering Contest to be held on the hill by the flag pole.
For everyone, there will be food — from Becky’s Pies to Mama’s On The Run. And how about some Rhubarb-flavored cotton candy? Of course, many people attend for the Rhubarb Pie! The Friends of the Library run the the Bake Table, where pies and other Rhubarb delights will be on sale — including the winning pies from the Baking Contest. Get there early — the pies sell out fast. Also on offer will be books for all ages, and bags to tote them away.
Contests have their own tent, showing Rhubarb stalks and leaves of superlative size, as well as flower arrangements, Rhubarb-themed art, and photography. The Contest Book will be available at the Library and on line at the Library’s website. In addition, the Pie Baking Contest, sponsored by the King Arthur Baking Company, will begin at 10 am at Sawyer Park. The Select Board members usually have the serious job of deciding which is the best pie by an amateur, and which is the best by a professional baker. Contestants should submit their 100% Rhubarb Pies by 9:30 that morning. The Rhubarb Wine Contest will be judged the night before.
And speaking of wine, if you thought that Rhubarb was only for dessert, you should visit the Drink Your Rhubarb booth. From noon to 3:30 pm, you can sample rhubarb beverages to take you from breakfast to lunch to dinner. Expand your knowledge, and find a new favorite beverage.
A musical play-list by Peter Martel will be heard during the day, and at 4 pm live music will begin on the Music Stage at the Park. Select Board member Tom James has arranged for THE EYES OF AGE to kick things off before turning the stage over to THE WHITE MOUNTAIN ROUNDERS at 6:30 pm.
There’s something for everyone at the Bennington Rhubarb Festival! See you on June 1st at Sawyer Park, off Route 202.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.
If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.
The next blog installment will be posted on June 4, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
In England, more so than the US, Rhubarb is eagerly anticipated in the Spring. The plant is grown commercially, especially in the Rhubarb Triangle of West Yorkshire and their singular product is ‘forced rhubarb.’ Forced to do what? you ask. I will explain.
The plants are grown in the fields for two years, just like all Rhubarb. In November, when they are dormant, the roots are transplanted into low heated sheds, protected from the weather. Months before the soil warms in the rest of the country, the Rhubarb begins to sprout. The sheds are completely dark, sometimes illuminated by red light bulbs or candles. In the warm, nitrogen-rich soil, the plants grow so fast that you can hear them!
Forced Rhubarb with its bright red stalks and weird leaves.
Forcing Rhubarb makes it available for sale out of season. Thus it is in the markets from December to April. Forced Rhubarb leaves are pale green, due to a lack of chlorophyll from growing in the dark. The stalks are red. This product is prized for its sweetness [leading to the mistaken idea that red field-grown Rhubarb of any sort is sweeter than green Rhubarb], and its tenderness. After the last harvest, the plants are dug up and put in the compost pile.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival. The Festival was started in 2013 to benefit the library Building Fund. If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH, 03442, USA.
The next installment of this blog will be posted on May 7, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
June 1, 2024, will see the Bennington Rhubarb Festival in full swing at Sawyer Park, Bennington, New Hampshire. This year, the Library Trustees are running the Festival and many of the favorite elements of the event will be present: Pie and Bake Sale, Rhubarb Pie Contest, Rhubarb Store, Petting Zoo, Children’s Activity Tent, Story Walk, vendors, food, music, Rhubarb superlative contests, art contest, flower arrangements.
The Festival will open at 10 am and close at 3 pm at Sawyer Park, just off Route 202, behind ‘Harris’ Store’. Parking is free. Admission is free.
Can you see them — those pink leaf buds pushing up through the soil? This is the earliest that I can remember seeing new growth, a full three weeks before last year. [Don’t try to tell me that the climate isn’t changing!] Usually the Rhubarb Patch is covered by at least a foot of snow in mid-March, but we had a mild winter.
As the leaves unfurl and the stalks grow taller, it is time to watch for flower buds. It is good to locate those early. Why? I like to dig out the roots that are flowering, to thin out the bed. The roots that are removed are sold to benefit the Library Building Fund or moved to another part of the garden where they will have more room.
Can Rhubarb Pie be far behind? Yum.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival. The Festival started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.
If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.
The next blog installment will be posted on April 9, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Rhubarb is not only for dessert! Its tartness pairs well with all sorts of foods, from beef to turkey to pork to meat. And then there is fish: in France and England, it is typical to pair tart fruits with ‘fatty’ fish such as mackerel and salmon. The first time I sold this relish at the Rhubarb Festival’s “Rhubarb Store”, the attendants bought a jar and ate it on hot dogs from a vendor. They proclaimed it to be ‘the BEST!” and they bought some more.
Halibut topped with Rhubarb-Onion Relish is served with asparagus and farro.
This delicious condiment appears in Marion Cunningham’s, The Supper Book. The author recommends serving the relish cold on hot meat.
Rhubarb-Onion Relishmakes 3 cups
2 c rhubarb, chopped 2 c. onions, chopped 1 c. vinegar 1 ½ tsp salt 2 c. light-brown sugar ½ tsp ground cloves ½ tsp ground allspice ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Combine everything in a heavy pot. Heat to a boil, turn down to a simmer. Cook 45 minutes until thicker. Put into jars and cool before twisting on the lids. Fresh, it will keep in the ‘frige for a week.
For longer storage, spoon hot relish into canning jars [I like to use the 1/2-cup size for relishes] with 2-part lids and process in a hot water bath 15 minutes.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival. The Festival was begun in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.
If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.
The next blog installment will be posted on April 9, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
We love rhubarb. At our house, pies and muffins and coffee cakes go into the freezer every Spring and Summer, to last into the Winter. This is one of our favorite coffee cakes, adapted from a recipe in the New York Times. Get the family involved: one person prepares the crumb, another prepares the wet mixture. One person prepares the batter, another prepares the fruit. Then everyone helps to assemble it for baking and everyone enjoys eating it!
A perfect Sunday breakfast with fruited yogurt and chicken sausages.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a 9” springform pan. Serves 12-16
for the CRUMB: 1/3 cup dark brown sugar + 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon + ½ teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon salt + ½ cup/1 stick butter, melted ¾ cup all-purpose flour + 1 cup white whole wheat flour In a large bowl, whisk sugars, spices and salt into melted butter until smooth. Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon. It will look and feel like a solid dough. Leave it pressed together in the bottom of the bowl. Set aside THE CRUMB.
For the FRUIT: 16 oz [1#] rhubarb, sliced ½-inch thick ¼ cup sugar + 2 tsp cornstarch + ¾ tsp ground ginger Toss these ingredients together. Set aside THE FRUIT.
for the WET mixture: 1/3 cup plain yogurt OR sour cream 1 US Large [2 oz] egg + 1 egg yolk from a US Large egg 2 tsp vanilla extract In a small bowl, stir these ingredients together to form the ‘Wet Mixture.’ Set aside THE WET MIXTURE
for the BATTER: ½ cup all-purpose flour ½ cup white whole wheat flour + ¼ tsp salt 1/3 cup sugar + ½ tsp baking soda + ½ tsp baking powder Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix these ingredients together. 6 Tbsp softened butter + 1 Tbsp of above Wet Mixture Cut butter into 12 pieces. Add these to above. Mix on medium speed ’til flour is moistened. Increase speed, beat 30 seconds. ½ of Wet Mixture = 3 oz other ½ of Wet Mixture = 3 oz Add Wet Mixture in 2 batches, beating 20 secs after each addition, scraping down sides of bowl. Pour batter into pan.
to ASSEMBLE: Spoon rhubarb over batter. With your fingers, break/squeeze crumb mixture into big crumbs, ~½” -¾” in size. Sprinkle over rhubarb and cake.
Bake 45-55 min until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (it might be moist from rhubarb). Cool ~10 mins, then remove collar of pan. Cool completely before serving.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.
If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.
The next blog installment will be posted on March 12, 2024. If you click the ‘Subscribe’ button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month for free.
Some families like to play games together during the holidays. But Monopoly takes forever and Scrabble is not for everybody. How about introducing Rhubarb Trivia to the fun? Print up this fact sheet and distribute it so people can study. Then hold a contest. Winner gets an extra helping of Rhubarb Pie or Rhubarb Pudding or Rhubarb Crumble Bars. At last year’s Rhubarb Festival, there was a Trivia Contest — get ready for Festival 2024!
How many species of rhubarb are there?
19
What is the coldest growth zone in which rhubarb will thrive?
Zone 2
What common grain shares a family with rhubarb?
Buckwheat
What is the Genus name of rhubarb?
Rheum
How tall can Rheum officinale [garden rhubarb] grow?
2 meters = 6.5 feet
How many calories in 2/3 cup of rhubarb?
20
What part of the rhubarb plant should you never eat?
leaves
What toxin is in rhubarb leaves?
Oxalic acid
Rhubarb is high in what vitamin?
Vitamin K1
What do you do to a rhubarb plant to be able to harvest it all summer long?
Cut off the flower stalks
How long can a rhubarb plant live?
60+ years
Which soil nutrient does rhubarb love the best?
Nitrogen
Where is the origin of rhubarb?
Central Asia.
Which ancient Asian civilization believed that the first humans grew from a rhubarb plant?
Persia
Which of these ancient civilizations used Rhubarb? Indus River or Mayan or Roman
Indus River
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, which was started in 2013 to benefit the library Building Fund. If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH, 03442, USA.
The next installment of this blog will be posted on January 16, 2024. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Want the taste of Rhubarb Pie without the fuss of a pie crust? For the crust-averse, nothing beats a pan of Rhubarb Crumble Bars!
I dare say there are many variations on this recipe [called Rhubarb Crunch, Rhubarb Bars, et al], but mine is from a cookbook compiled in 1976. That year the nation was celebrating its bicentennial, and many women’s groups put out a cookbook to mark the occasion. One such was the Carlisle Junior Civic Club, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where my parents lived. This is the recipe of Mrs K.E. Gephart, Sr for her Rhubarb Crunch:
Mrs. Gephart said, “This is a different way to prepare rhubarb and much better than rhubarb pie!”
9” square pan, 8-9 servings
9×13” pan, 18-24 servings
Set oven to 350F
1 c. sifted flour ¾ c uncooked rolled oats 1 c brown sugar, packed ½ c/1 stick butter, melted 1 tsp cinnamon
2 c. white whole wheat flour 1½ c. uncooked rolled oats 1½ c brown sugar, packed 1 c/2 sticks butter, melted 2 tsp cinnamon
Mix together until crumbly. Divide mixture in two equal portions. Pat ½ of mixture into a greased pan.
4 c. diced rhubarb
8 c. diced rhubarb
Distribute evenly over crumbs.
1 c. sugar 2 Tbsp cornstarch 1 c. water 1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ c. sugar 3 Tbsp cornstarch 1½ c. water 2 tsp vanilla extract
Combine these in a small pan. Cook, stirring, ’til thick and clear. Pour over rhubarb in pan.
½ crumb mixture
½ crumb mixture
Distribute evenly over rhubarb.
Bake 45-60 mins until bubbly.
Whipped cream
Whipped cream OR ice cream
Cool briefly, cut in squares. Serve plain or with topping.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival. The festival started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund and all things Rhubarby.
If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.
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