A Traditional Farm Life - Rhubarb Pie

A Traditional Farm Life - Rhubarb Pie

By Shasta Hamilton 

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends!  The Kansas Sampler Festival in Wamego dominated our thoughts this week as we made preparations for our small contribution to the Enterprise table located in the Dickinson County tent.  Thousands of handouts were printed to give folks from all over our great state a glimpse of a little Mom and Pop restaurant in Enterprise, Kansas.

Saturday, May 2 dawned cloudy and rainy as two of our older children and I carpooled our way to Wamego with fellow Enterprise promoters, Kyle and Marla Griffis.  They had gone the previous night in order to set up the Enterprise booth. This task included (slowly) towing a playhouse built by the Enterprise Rec Commission as grand prize of a drawing raising money for new playground equipment for the city park.  K-Four Trailers of Salina graciously donated the use of the trailer for the weekend.

Perhaps the weather slowed down attendance a bit Saturday morning, but there was a steady stream of festival goers filing through our tent from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Our booth happened to be placed next to the sheep shearer, so we were never far away from the sights, smells, and sounds of a traditional farm.  At the top of every hour a lamb was sheared, giving all present an opportunity to view up close and personal another aspect of farm life in rural Kansas.

We ended up telling folks from as close as Enterprise, Abilene, Chapman and Clay Center to as far away as Garden City about our little restaurant.  It was an exhausting day, but certainly worth the effort to get the word out about what our fair little Kansas town of Enterprise can offer.

Our Sampler Festival plans were momentarily interrupted this week by garden related necessities.  A customer this week asked if we wanted any fresh rhubarb.  I certainly did, as I have been desiring to try out several rhubarb pie recipes this spring.  The customer turned out to be Mike Voit, a local vegetable farmer from out Chapman way.  As evidenced by our brief conversation, he and his wife tend an extensive list of fruits and vegetables, and--as all farmers--are always looking for new outlets to sell their very perishable farm products. 

When Mike delivered us the rhubarb later that afternoon, he also brought a sampling of herbs and berry plants for our own garden.  Perennial Egyptian walking onions, oregano, and chives now have a new home in my small herb garden.  I’m also hoping to get a horseradish plot started with the roots he brought.  The three berry plants Mike dug up for us from unusual locations around his farm were a welcome first addition of berry plants to our new garden.  If you’re interested in locally grown produce, watch Buy Sell Trade to see what fresh off the farm goodies he has available.  

The mineral tub of gorgeous red rhubarb Mike brought us yielded 7 quarts of the chopped vegetable after cutting off the leaves and chopping the stalks into half-inch pieces.  We froze them in 4-cup portions, as this is the most common amount needed in recipes.

This evening we enjoyed sampling two rhubarb pies.  One was a standard two-crust recipe and the other a single crust with an oatmeal topping.  Our favorite was the pie with the topping as it best displayed the lovely pink rhubarb underneath.

Rhubarb Pie

1 pie shell (8”), unbaked

3 cups rhubarb, cut fine

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Topping

1/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  In medium bowl, thoroughly mix rhubarb, sugar, egg and flour; pour into unbaked pie shell.

3.  In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients with a fork or clean fingers until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over pie.

4.  Place pie on baking sheet and bake on the bottom oven shelf until filling is bubbly and topping is light golden brown, approximately 45 minutes.  Cover crust edges with foil if browning too quickly. 

4.  Remove from oven, leaving pie on baking sheet.  When filling has stopped bubbling, remove pie pan from baking sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Copyright © 2015 by Shasta Hamilton

Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in Enterprise, Kansas.  She and her husband own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled children.  You can reach The Buggy Stop by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com.

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