f r e s h s t a r t
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
The pink-green of summer
One of the very best things about June, something I look forward to every year, is the appearance of rhubarb. Delicious, tart, pink and green stalks with poisonous leaves and an addictive taste. It's season is relatively short, and it doesn't seem to be one of those things that the US imports from other countries and that we thus have access to year-round, like strawberries in winter. No, this for me at least, is a truly seasonal food. The local big chain grocery stores don't usually keep much in stock, and what I've been able to find at the Jewel each year is kind of sad. It's a few short stalks with dry ends, saran-wrapped to a styrofoam plate, for something like $4 a little package. I take what I can get, and I usually end up buying the store's entire scrawny supply. The local Mexican fruit market isn't much help either, although they otherwise have a huge selection of produce.
My first taste of rhubarb this year came from my hometown in Michigan. My parents brought it for me when we met up this past weekend. Our rhubarb source is almost too cute and small-town sounding, but its true. There's a little old lady who puts out a small sign in her yard when she's ready to sell rhubarb in the early summer. You drive up to her house, ring her doorbell, and she brings out a small kitchen scale and sets it on her picnic table. You then go to her rhubarb patch while she waits, and pick your own rhubarb stalks. She'll remind you to pull it out near the base or it won't grow back next year. She weighs it, sells it for about what it's going for at Meijer, the local grocery store chain there. A few pounds of her delightful rhubarb made their way onto my kitchen counter where they were chopped, sprinkled with a little cinnamon, flour, sugar and butter, and made into rhubarb crisp.
For some reason my dad, the avid gardener in the family, has never grown his own patch. He started one this year with a few plants. With any luck I'll have a more direct source for one of my favorite foods in a few years.
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Comments:
How ludicrous it seems that you have to explain what Meijer is...but I guess that's an illustration of how small my world is! I truly pity you for not having a Meijer nearby...there's nothing quite like it. I taunt Melissa Brown with it all the time now that she lives in California :)
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