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 2026!
What did the ancient Greeks call rhubarb?
The Barbarian Plant
Who thought he brought rhubarb back from the new World? Columbus or Da Gama or Cabot
Columbus
When did rhubarb roots and seeds arrive in Western Europe?
1600s/17th century
Which country was the first to use rhubarb for food?
England
Where in England is The Rhubarb Triangle? *
West Yorkshire
When was rhubarb introduced to North America?
1770
By whom?
Benjamin Franklin sent rhubarb from Europe to John Bartram in Philadelphia
Is rhubarb a fruit or a vegetable?
A vegetable
Which state has rhubarb as their official State Fruit?
New York State
Half of all commercial rhubarb in the US is from which * state?
Washington State
When is National Rhubarb Pie Day?
January 23rd
When is National Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Day?
June 9th
What is a common nickname for Rhubarb?
Pie plant
What is another common nickname for Rhubarb?
Neighbor plant
How long ago were the Chinese using rhubarb medicinally*
5000 years
What part of rhubarb is medicinal?
The root
What were rhubarb roots used for in medicine?
As a laxative
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 13, 2025. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Fall is a good time to plant rhubarb. The feed store won’t be selling roots at this time of year, but if a friendly neighbor wants to share, say “Yes, please!” You’ll want to plant it in a spot that gets lots of sun and where the soil is sandy, so it will be well-drained. You could even plant rhubarb in the flower bed, if that’s the best spot you have. Treat it like an ‘ornamental’.
How large the hole needs to be depends on the length of the root stock that you get. If the root is very large and has several clusters of stalks, then cut it up into smaller pieces before you plant. Cut into the root clump from top to bottom, being sure to include a cluster of stalks in each piece you remove. The roots could be from 5 inches to 12 inches long. so make sure that your holes are deeper than the root is long. If planting more than one root clump, then you need a hole for each one. Locate the holes 3 [three] feet [1 meter] apart — rhubarb leaves have quite a spread!
Put some manure in each hole, followed by a pint or two of water. Then position the root clump in the hole so that the top of it is a little lower than ground level. Fill the hole with soil, and tamp it down with your foot. This will make a ‘well’ around the plant which you will now fill with water. Then surround the new planting with more manure or at least good compost. Put some sort of marker to remind you what you have planted there — you don’t want to mow the new plants over next Spring.
If your area is having a drought, water the newly-planted rhubarb every other day, but not too much lest you rot them. If you are getting regular rain, you will not have to water. The plants will look peaked, and the leaves will be limp, but that is as much end-of-season die-back as it is transplantation shock. After the killing frost, top-dress with manure again, and leave them until Spring. There is no need to cut back the stalks at the end of summer, nor to remove them. Their decay will add nutrients to the soil.
The next Summer, let them grow undisturbed. Do not harvest any stalks. This will help the roots to build up lots of energy for growing. The second summer, harvest one or two stalks from each new plant. At the third summer, the plant will be well-established and you may harvest at will, being sure to leave at least two stalks on each root crown.
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 November 18, 2025. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Rhubarb is not only for pie! We frequently enjoy rhubarb as an ingredient on the breakfast menu. In addition to muffins and fritters, as seen in previous posts, here we have a quick-bread with Rhubarb. [A quick-bread is made without yeast, leavened with baking powder and baking soda]
Here’s a tip: Mix the batter the night before, put it in the prepared pan, and bake it first thing in the morning for a head-start on your day. Old-style cooks will tell you that you can’t do that, because the batter won’t rise. They are thinking of the old ‘single-acting’ baking powder that had to be baked right away. Because this recipe is made with modern double-acting baking powder plus baking soda [due to the acidity of the rhubarb], it will begin to rise a little when mixed with the wet ingredients, then do its major rising in the oven.
Served with pan-cooked ham and yogurt with diced watermelon, the Rhubarb Quick-Bread is a star at the summer breakfast table.
one 8½x4½” loaf/ 3 small loaves: original
one 8½x4½” loaf/ 3 small loaves: adapted
Heat oven 350F. Butter then flour pan
8 Tbsp/113 g unsalted butter—-1 cup/200 g sugar—- 1 Tbsp fresh-grated orange zest—-⅓ cup whole-milk yogurt
7 Tbsp/100 g unsalted butter—-¾ cup/150 g sugar —-1 Tbsp fresh-grated orange zest—-⅓ cup plain, low-fat yogurt
Melt butter. Whisk these ingredients together until well combined.
2 large eggs
2 two-oz eggs = 3.6 oz without shells
Whisk in eggs.
1¾ cup/223 g all-purpose flour—-1 tsp baking powder—-½ tsp baking soda—-½ tsp kosher salt
1 cup/223 g King Arthur Golden Flour—- ½ c white flour—1¼ tsp baking powder—½ tsp baking soda–½ tsp kosher salt
In a separate bowl, whisk these together.
1½ cups rhubarb, cut ¼” dice–flour mixture
1½ cups rhubarb, cut ¼” dice–flour mixture
Add these to butter mixture and fold until combined.
¼ cup rhubarb, cut in ¼” pieces—-2 T sugar
¼ cup rhubarb, cut in ¼” pieces—-1 T sugar
Put batter in prepared pan and smooth top. Stir these together and sprinkle on top of batter.
Bake until golden brown and set, 55-60 mins. [skewer in center comes out with moist crumbs attached]
Icing/10X sugar
icing/10x sugar
Let cool in pan 5 mins, then tip out of pan. Turn right side up, dust with powdered sugar.
1 of 8 slices: 343 calories… 13 g fat… 1 g fiber… 5 g protein… 52 g carb.., 56 mg Calcium… 268 mg Sodium…
1 of 8 slices: 274 calories… 11.5 g fat… 2 g fiber… 5 g protein… 56 g carb.., 56 mg Calcium… 210 mg Sodium…
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 in October, 2025. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
On Saturday June 7, the 2025 Rhubarb Festival will be held in Bennington, NH. This festival benefits the Building Fund of our town’s G.E.P. Dodge Library. If you have ever visited our dear little library, you know that it is in need of expansion — we lack an entrance that is ADA compliant; ditto a restroom that patrons are permitted to use; a larger children’s room would be great; as well as storage space for our media and book collection. But I digress.
Again this year, the Festival is being sponsored by the Library Trustees, under the able leadership of volunteer Melissa Clark. The Festival will be held at Sawyer Park from 10 am to 4 pm, and there will be a LOT going on. The tents of vendors of all sorts will dot the field. The petting zoo and children’s activity tent will be set up on the hill, under the auspices of the Osienski Family. Deb Davidson will be running the popular Rhubarb General Store, and the Rhubarb Contests [find the Contest Booklet at the Library and at Edmund’s Store] will be held in their own tent, organized by Colleen Allen. Get to the Rhubarb Bake & Book Sale early, so you can take home a pie, other goodies, and something to read while you eat before they run out. Laurie MacKeigan, Melissa Searles, and other Friends of the Library will be there to assist you.
Food trucks will feed you and you can even “Drink Your Rhubarb” at the booth of that name. The Rhubarb Pie Contest will be judged at 10 am, while the New England Rhubarb Wine Contest will have been adjudicated the day before. Visit the non-profit groups, such as the Conservation Commission, the Pierce School PTO, and the Historical Society, who will have booths to supply you with information. Historical re-enactors from World War II will be on hand and in costume at their encampment. Test your knowledge at the Rhubarb Trivia game with Jill Wilmoth. And if nothing else, come see the new Town Fire Truck.
Admission and parking are free, assisted by the Bennington Fire Department. Start the summer by attending a home-made festival with a small-town feel — come celebrate all things Rhubarb-y at the Bennington, NH Rhubarb Festival, June 7.
This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, which began 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 in June, 2025, after this year’s Festival. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Around here at this time of year, people are opening their vacation cabins and getting ready for Summer. That, of course, means cook-outs and backyard parties, when a popular dish to contribute is a pot of baked beans. Did you know that you can add rhubarb?
Midwest Living offers this unusual recipe, saying, “No one at the barbecue or potluck will believe it when you confess the secret ingredient in these sweet-and-savory baked beans. In addition to rhubarb, powdered ginger and bacon add big-time flavor.” I can’t wait to try this for the Memorial Day cook-out.
Sv 8
Preheat oven to 350°F.
4 slices thick-sliced bacon, chopped
In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp; remove with slotted spoon.
1½ cups chopped rhubarb +++++ 1 cup chopped sweet onion
In reserved drippings, cook these ~2 mins or until tender.
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger ++ ½ tsp salt
Stir in salt and ginger; cook 1 minute.
two 15-oz cans navy beans ++++ 8 oz canned tomato sauce ++++++ ½ cup unpacked brown sugar ++++ 2 tsp yellow mustard +++++ cooked bacon
Rinse and drain the beans. Stir in all these ingredients. Pour into a 1½-quart baking dish. Cover and bake 25 mins.
Uncover; bake 20 mins, until surface loses wet appearance.
I think I will contribute a few servings of these beans to the Rhubarb Bake Sale at the Rhubarb Festival…
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 3, 2025. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Can you see the pinkish bits in the lower left and center bottom? This is the earliest that I remember seeing the Rhubarb emerge.
The GEP Dodge Library of Bennington, NH will again be hosting the Rhubarb Festival. The date will be Saturday, June 7th [always the first Saturday in June], beginning at 10 am and closing at 4 pm. Write it on your calendar, so you don’t forget!
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 May 6, 2025. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Did you know that January 23 is National Pie Day? ‘Invented’ in the 1970s, it is intended to honor a love of dessert pies. Why not use some of the rhubarb that is in the freezer to make a special pie?
When my husband had his first teaching job, in Hudson, NH, his colleague Norma was a really good baker. She shared a few of her recipes with me, and here is her really good pie.
Line a 9″ pie plate with the pie dough of choice. Cut enough 1″ pieces of rhubarb to fill the pie crust to the top. Beat together 2 eggs, 2 cups sugar, and 4 Tablespoons flour, and pour over rhubarb. Bake 1 hour at 350F. Let cool a bit 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 February 20, 2025. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Tart fruits have long been paired with fatty or oily fish for a real taste sensation. Have you tried using Rhubarb instead of lemon? This recipe is from Melissa Clark at the New York Times who says, “In this speedy, rosy weeknight dinner, a tart ginger-rhubarb sauce lends brightness to rich, buttery roasted salmon fillets… The sauce should strike a balance between tangy and sweet. For the pinkest, prettiest sauce, seek out the reddest rhubarb stalks you can find.”
4 servings original recipe
2 servings my adaptation
Heat oven to 400F . Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
3 scallions, thinly sliced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Take out 2 T, use remainder in next step
Sliced scallions ++++ 2 T granulated sugar ++++1 T rice wine vinegar +++++ ½ tsp grated fresh ginger ++++ pinch salt
Sliced scallions+++++ 1 T granulated sugar 1½ tsp rice wine vinegar ++++++ ½ tsp grated fresh ginger ++pinch salt
In a medium saucepan, combine these. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then simmer until sugar has dissolved.
6 oz /1⅓ cups rhubarb, trimmed, sliced 1” thick
3 oz /2/3 cups rhubarb, trimmed, sliced 1” thick
Add rhubarb. Cover pan, and cook, stirring at whiles, until rhubarb is just tender, ~5 mins.
Take pan off heat and, use a spoon or fork to mash rhubarb ino a chunky purée.
Sugar/vinegar/ginger/salt
Sugar/vinegar/ginger/salt
Taste, adjust flavors for a balance between sweet, tangy and salty. Divide in 2 equal portions.
four 4-5 oz skin-on salmon fillets ++++salt and pepper++++ 3 T unsalted butter, cubed ++½ of rhubarb sauce
two 4 oz skin-on salmon fillets ++++salt and pepper ++++ 1 tsp unsalted butter, cubed ++½ of rhubarb sauce
Put fish skin-side-down on baking sheet. Season lightly. Spread most of the rhubarb mixture on fish. Top evenly with butter. Roast 8-13 mins, or until just cooked.
The 2 T sliced scallions +++ Red-pepper flakes +++++ rhubarb sauce
The 2 T sliced scallions+++ Red-pepper flakes+++++ rhubarb sauce
Garnish fillets, serve with remaining rhubarb sauce.
1/3 c peas per serving
Plate with peas.
529 calories… 35 g fat. 1 g fiber… 41 g protein 10 g carb… 65 mg Calcium… 631 mg Sodium
295 calories… 11 g fat. 4 g fiber….. 32.5 g protein… 10 g carbs… 65 mg Calcium… 315 mg Sodium
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 September 24, 2024. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
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.
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.
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