Rhubarb

What it is

Rhubarb is a vegetable in the buckwheat family, that cooks use like a fruit, in sauce, pie, jam and jelly. Full-length stalks measure about 30–60 cm (12–24 in). Only the stalks are food; the broad leaves are poisonous.

Colour runs from green to red without changing the flavour. Victoria has green stalks speckled with pink; Cherry Red is red inside and out. Sourness and a crisp bite are part of the raw-rhubarb experience.

Where it comes from

Garden rhubarb is native to southern Siberia and reached the Americas with settlers before 1800. By the late eighteenth century, Europeans were using the sour stalks in tarts. In West Yorkshire, England, growing an early crop indoors became a local tradition during the nineteenth century.

How it's eaten where it grows

In the US, strawberry-rhubarb pie puts the sour stalks beside sweet berries. In Yorkshire, rhubarb crumble bakes softened pieces beneath a topping of flour, butter and sugar, with cream or custard alongside.

Alaskan kitchens also use rhubarb beyond dessert. A raw relish combines ground rhubarb with lingonberries or blueberries and sugar. Rhubarb-mint jelly, made from strained rhubarb juice and fresh mint leaves, is served with lamb.

How it's grown

Rhubarb is a cool-weather plant that returns each spring from thick underground stems. A well-tended clump can live for 15 years or more. Picking starts in the second season, or the third for plants grown from seed. Harvesters pull and twist each stalk away. The leaves left after harvest help the plant store energy for the following year.

When and where you'll find it

In Minnesota, rhubarb is usually ready in spring, with the main picking season ending in June. In Maine, the stalks reach supermarkets and farmers’ markets during the season; surplus garden rhubarb also keeps as frozen pieces or canned preserves for winter. Yorkshire’s forced crop usually arrives much earlier, from mid-January to March.