National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day

Celebrate National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day by making one of the historical recipes at home!

By Liz Dommasch, Archivist

On June 9^th of each year, we apparently recognize this delicious and seasonal pie made with tasty local ingredients: strawberry and rhubarb.

Rhubarb is a favourite vegetable of home gardeners as it is easy to grow and can be used in a vast number of desserts and preserves. Although tart, rhubarb complements a number of fruits, meats, nuts and other food staples. It is also an excellent source of calcium, manganese, vitamin C, fiber and antioxidants.

As popular as Strawberry Rhubarb Pie is, its’s surprising our cookbook collection doesn’t have any recipes for it. Instead please enjoy the following Rhubarb Pie recipes that could be adapted to include strawberries:

Rhubarb Pie – Five Roses Cookbook, 1915

2 cups rhubarb (stewed)

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons Five Roses flour

1 egg

Bake with two crusts

Rhubarb Lemon Pie – Woodstock Cook Book, 1917

1 cup of rhubarb sliced thin, 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg and the yolks of another, keep the whites of this for icing*, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, juice of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon of grated rind of lemon. Put rhubarb in bottom of crust and mix the others together and pour over. Bake as lemon pie, ice after baking and put back in oven to brown – Miss Alice Haffey.

*Miss Haffey is referring to meringue.

Rhubarb and Date Pie – Moffats Cook Book, 1926

Line a pie plate with rich paste (i.e. pie crust), lay on it a layer of dates and fill up with rhubarb, and bake in upper crust. Put in oven at 450 degrees, turn top off and bottom low. Time about 30 minutes.

Image credit: Archives of Pearson Scott Foresman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhubarb_(PSF).png