What to do with all that rhubarb?

Consider the humble rhubarb plant. This easy grower, well-suited for northern climates, is so much a fixture in Alaska that we tend to take it for granted.

According to the Alaska Urban Hippie blog, a mature rhubarb plant that’s a few years old can be safely harvested from spring to fall as it continues to grow. And growing starts early. As soon as winter snows melt, still weeks before Alaska’s safe garden planting date, spring rhubarb is already emerging from the barely thawed ground.

My first exposure to rhubarb was as a child, when my mother would chop, then stew rhubarb and serve it as a spread on toast for breakfast. An accomplished baker, she would also churn out a seriously delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie.

As an adult, I satisfied my rhubarb cravings by making a crude crumble. It requires fewer skills than pie-making, but is every bit as tasty and satisfying.

A couple decades ago, when I lived on the Kenai Peninsula, I had two large rhubarb plants in my yard. The biggest challenge was always not letting it go to waste. That’s a tall order for such a productive plant.

Finding recipes that did not need to be consumed immediately seemed the best strategy for maximizing rhubarb’s use. One of my favorites to this day is barbecue sauce.

When I first decided that incorporating rhubarb into barbecue sauce might be a good idea, I was, perhaps, over-fixated on a “from scratch” recipe. While there is a measure of self-satisfaction in creating a barbecue sauce from the ground up, I determined over time that finding a decent bottled sauce, then repurposing it with rhubarb and other ingredients, like cilantro and chipotles in adobo sauce, was a much better use of my time, without any significant loss in flavor. The key is softening and sweetening the rhubarb. I simply coarse-chop it and simmer it in a little water with something to sweeten it.

Brown sugar is a good choice for barbecue sauce. So is maple syrup. Pineapple juice, too. The beauty of this process is its inexactness. It can be tailored to a variety of flavor profiles.

Once softened, dump the rhubarb in a blender with a couple spoonfuls of whatever barbecue sauce you’re using and blend till smooth. I put it back in a small pot, add however much more barbecue sauce I need, and let it simmer some more until it reduces and the flavors concentrate. It’s great on grilled chicken and pork. More recently, thanks to a large bag of late-season rhubarb supplied by a friend, I discovered another use for the stuff – rhubarb-infused gin. Inspired by seeing, then tasting, rhubarb gin on a 2022 visit to Dublin, I figured it would be easy enough to duplicate at home. I cut up a bunch of stalks into 1- to 2-inch pieces and fill about two-thirds of a Nalgene bottle with them. Then I fill the bottle with gin and let it sit in the refrigerator for two or three days. This would work equally well with vodka. I have always been pretty much a purist when it comes to adult beverages, and have assiduously avoided flavored beers and boozes. So I was surprised to find my rhubarb gin and tonic to be a delightfully summerish twist on a classic cocktail. While normal tonic water and a lime garnish are fine accompaniments for the rhubarb gin, elderflower tonic and a squeeze of orange or mandarin up the game even more.

Speaking of adult beverages, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Bushes Bunches farm stand and their delicious rhubarb lemonade, which can be used to make a really good margarita. Whatever the case, mixing up a rhubarb-infused cocktail is a whole lot easier – and less time-consuming – than making a pie. Although if anyone has a spare rhubarb pie, I’d happily trade it for some rhubarb gin and barbecue sauce.

Mark Kelsey is a foodie and retired journalist who lives near Wasilla.