The slow, cool spring produced a bumper crop of rhubarb for many folks. Although usually eaten as a “fruit”, botanically speaking, rhubarb is vegetable. An invaluable homestead plant in Maine, this tart tasting member of the buckwheat family can reach up to 3 feet or more tall. Of all the herbaceous perennials that have accompanied our household every time we’ve moved, the rhubarb plant is the oldest. The first rhubarb cultivar traveled to New England via European settlers. Once grown solely as an ornamental plant, rhubarb was cultivated in Asiatic countries for many centuries before being introduced to Europe in about 1600.
I trace the roots of my rosy-stalked, tart tasting plant back to the family homestead in Norway, Maine. When the Ephraim Crocket family settled on Lake Pennesseewassee in 1812, they grew many foods, including potatoes, apple trees and rhubarb. The rhubarb enlarged, the plant was divided and moved and still grows tall today.
My first clump from Norway went to Newport, and then a piece of it followed us to Bangor. As my gardens grew in Bangor, the roots of the plant, happy in rich soil with plenty of organic material kept expanding. I happily shared rhubarb with neighbors, friends and family, including two plants that still reside in the Zoidis Park on Central Street in downtown Bangor.
The family rhubarb came with us to Crockett Cove in Stonington and later a clump went with our daughter Emily to their new home in Dryden, New York. This year Emily shared the Crockett rhubarb plant with the 8th generation, her cousins in New Hampshire and Quincy, Massachusetts.
In good years, the rhubarb harvest can be over 100 pounds from the majestic plants that line the side of my gardens going up Rabbit Hill. With so much rhubarb to be enjoyed, I’ve become a collector of culinary ideas and recipes. We’ve relished Ruby juice, Rhubarb cheesecakes and tarts, muffins, cake, chutney, relish and jams. Our family favorite, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, is often how we start the season.
The recipe for Rhubarb Streusel Pie is from Nancy Harmon Jenkins, the acclaimed Maine food writer and journalist of Camden, Maine. I’ve been a devoted follower of Nancy’s work since the 1970’s when her passionate interest in Mediterranean cultures and cuisines produced several books and pieces on the Mediterranean, sustainable agriculture and farm to market connections. Her current writing, available on Substack, was the source of this delicious pie recipe.
Rhubarb Streusel Pie is a down-home dessert with very sophisticated levels of flavors. The filling combines the tartness of rhubarb with the bright red of strawberries, either fresh or frozen. Finely grated zest of an orange is incorporated into the cane sugar that sweetens the pie, and a bit of nutmeg and vanilla extract complete the delicious mixture. The topping, easily prepared in the bowl of your food processor, is a sublime mixture of butter, brown sugar, flour and nuts. Nancy recommends either pecans or walnuts, I used hazelnuts for an even richer flavor. Nut allergies in the family? Try using old-fashioned rolled oats or unsalted pumpkin seeds instead.
This is pie to enjoy with every sensuous mouthful. The tart bite of rhubarb first hits the palate, making one pucker. Then the sweetness of strawberries lingers, followed by just a hint of nutmeg finished with unique flavor of orange. The topping, crisp, buttery and rich with nuts salivates the appetite for just another bite. Savoring every morsel of Rhubarb Streusel Pie is a delicious and sinful way to enjoy spring’s bounty of New England’s historic homesteading crop of the pie plant known as rhubarb.
Rhubarb Streusel Pie
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
- 1- egg beaten with water for wash
- 4 cups rhubarb about 1 pound, chopped or sliced into small pieces
- 1 cup strawberries sliced
- 1 cup sugar divided
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- 1/3 cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Topping:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts pecans, or hazelnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Assemble ingredients and tools. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with a little water to prepare the egg wash.
- Fit the dough into the pie plate and paint the bottom and sides of the crust with the egg wash.
- Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and add to a large bowl.
- Slice the strawberries and add them to the bowl.
- Grate the zest from the orange into a shallow bowl.
- Add about ½ cup sugar to the zest and using your fingers, rub the zest into the sugar.
- Sprinkle 2 – 3 tablespoons of the orange- sugar mixture over the pie crust.
- To the bowl of fruit, add the orange-sugar mixture, the remaining ½ cup sugar, flour, nutmeg, and vanilla extract.
- Stir well to mix and spoon into the pie shell.
- Add the topping ingredients to the bowl of your food processor and pulse until crumbly.
- Sprinkle the mixture over the top of the pie.
- Bake the pie in a 400-degree oven for about 40 – 50 minutes, until the juices start to bubble and are clear. Cool on a rack completely before cutting.
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