Pickled Rhubarb

Plus Oatmeal Rhubarb Cookies

By Tom Andersen

Like many of you, I’ve been here most of my life, but my family roots are in the midwest — way over there just to the left of Minnesota, the spiritual home of rhubarb and I swear the famed strawberry rhubarb pie. Rhubarb plants in that part of the world are passed down through generations. 

Rhubarb is native to Northern Asia where it was exclusively a medicinal plant but it made its way to Europe where apparently Ben Franklin got ahold of an edible variety and sent it to a friend here at home in the late 1700s. It’s a pretty tart vegetable, but at the time, sugar became a reasonably priced commodity so away it went. It didn’t take too long to travel the continent. How could anyone resist a strawberry rhubarb pie?

Rhubarb is a little like zucchini. From May to July the rush is on. Within this window you’ll find stacks of rhubarb pies, gallons of vanilla ice cream with rhubarb puree dripping down the sides of cups and cones as well as jars upon jars of jam and cookie crocks bursting at the seams. Some years, even the freezer is full. After that, they are again like zucchini. They become a highly “gifted” item.

The  rhubarb plant is pretty unique. The stalk looks like red celery but the top looks like swiss chard. There is a lot of leaf, but unfortunately there is enough oxalic acid in them to deem them toxic. Do not try to make them edible. A local chemist says, “NO! And I mean it”. Don’t feed it to the chickens either. It’s fine in the compost bin.

Rhubarb Pickles

There are many ways to start the rhubarb frenzy. We’re going to start with lacto-fermenting them and we’ll end up with a sour and slightly salty pickle. There are two ways to do this. 

First way: Cut up the stalks into half inch pieces. Weigh them. Add 2.5% fine pickling salt. Put the combination in a big bowl and massage them like crazy. Let it rest for half an hour and squeeze them again. Pack them into a jar tightly and hold the solids under the brine that they create. If there is not enough brine, make some by adding one teaspoon of salt to one cup of water and add just enough to cover. Use weights or a bag full of water on top. Cover it loosely. Leave about an inch of space to allow for fermentation. Cover loosely and put the jar in a pie pan to capture any overflow. It takes about a week to convert the sugars in the rhubarb to a tasty pickle.

The second way: Chop the stalks as in the first way. Make up a brine with a 2.5% salt solution (one big teaspoon of pickling salt or sea salt to one cup of water.) Treat as above. The only difference is not making the brine from just the juice of the stalks. With this method you end up with a lot more liquid than in the first method.

So what do you do with pickled rhubarb? I make pureed rhubarb out of the second method. Simply strain off the liquid and either put it in the blender for a while or put a blender on a stick in the jar and go to town on it. The puree I use on homemade ice cream or even better, I add some chunks of strawberry and whip it up in kefir ice cream. Not bad on yoghurt either.

The chunks are a different delight all together. I am a cookie fiend as was my mother and my grandma was our greatest enabler. My mom lived into her nineties so cookies can’t be all that bad. I feel duty bound to pass on her recipe for oatmeal rhubarb cookies.

Oatmeal Rhubarb Cookies

¾ cup brown sugar
⅔ cup lard (or soft butter)
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup rhubarb chunks
½ cup raisins
½ cup crushed walnuts
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp cinnamon

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the lard and the sugar. It takes a few minutes. Add the egg and the vanilla. Add the stuff in the bowl. Mix in the raisins and the nuts. Now, slowly add half the oatmeal. Add the second half of the oatmeal and the rhubarb by hand trying not to smash the rhubarb too much.

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Use parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Make tablespoon sized balls and slightly flatten them. Give them some space and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Let them cool.

Okay, go ahead and have cookies AND ice cream. I’m sure it would be grandma approved.