Food from the Field: The Taste of Spring

If newly mown grass is the smell of spring then fresh rhubarb has to be the taste. Rhubarb looks like celery with sunburn and tastes like a sour apple on steroids but when you add a fair amount of sweetener and combine it with strawberries you have a quintessential rural American flavor.

Rhubarb has been in cultivation for thousands of years. It originally came to Europe from China and was first used medicinally. It is a very hardy perennial plant that thrives where winters are cold and the soil is manure enriched. Rhubarb plants have been in my garden since sometime in the late 1920s when my grandmother planted the first one.

This plant is a recent transplant that won't reach maturity for at least another year.

This is the time of year when fresh rhubarb can easily be found at your local farmer's market if you live in an area that gets at least two months of cold weather. Look for stalks that are crisp and firm, sort of like celery. I like the deep red varieties but if you can only find green rhubarb add a little more sweetener to the recipe. I like to harvest or buy the stalks when they are three quarters of an inch to one and one quarter inches wide. The leaves are toxic so don't eat them.

I grew up eating rhubarb stewed with sugar as a sauce, in rhubarb custard pie, in rhubarb cake, in preserves, and even as ice cubes in soda but the hands down family favorite is strawberry rhubarb pie. When spring chores keep me too busy to make pie crust I go for the quick and easy crumble.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

The Filling (this works for a pie too)

2 cups chopped fresh rhubarb

2 cups fresh strawberries halved or quartered depending on size

1/4 cup minute tapioca

1 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons molasses

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

I have a confession to make here. I am not a fan of molasses. I use it in very few recipes. However there is something wonderful that happens when you add it and lemon juice to anything strawberry and rhubarb. Trust me.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and let them sit for fifteen minutes while the oven preheats at 350 degrees and you make the topping.

The Crumbs

1/2 cup old fashion rolled oats

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 cup (one stick) cold butter cut into pieces

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix the oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium size bowl. Put the pieces of butter in and blend with your finger tips or a pastry blender until you have marble size pieces. Add the pecans and continue blending briefly.

Put the filling in a deep dish pie plate or casserole dish. Spread the crumbs evenly over the top and bake for about 30 minutes until the filling is bubbling at the sides.