Fairlawn Rhubarb

You can take the rhubarb out of Fairlawn, but you cannot take Fairlawn out of the rhubarb!*

 

This post is a tribute to our rhubarb, which has a history of its own and has given our family countless delicious rhubarb pies over the years. 

Twenty-four years ago in 1988, my husband and I moved into our first home in the Fairlawn section of Pawtucket. Our new neighbors, two elderly sisters in their eighties, lived next door to us in a small, neat cape. Their home, built in the 1950’s on land they inherited from their father, sat directly behind the home where they grew up.

When the sisters moved into their new home, they took clippings of rhubarb from their father’s garden, which he had planted and cultivated several years before.  Over the years, the sisters shared their rhubarb with us, and eventually we transplanted some of the tart vegetable into our own garden. 

When we moved out of Fairlawn, we brought the rhubarb with us and have been enjoying this delicious sweet-tart pie every summer.

 

Rhubarb Pie Recipe

1 ¼ cups sugar

½ cup all-purpose flour

4 + cups rhubarb cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons butter

Dash salt

Pastry for 9-inch pie

Stir together sugar, flour, and dash salt. Add sugar mixture to rhubarb pieces; toss to coat fruit. Let fruit mixture stand for 15 minutes. Fill a pastry-lined 9-inch pie plate with rhubarb mixture; dot with butter. Adjust top crust. Seal and flute edge. Cover edge of pie with foil. Bake in a 375º oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 25 more minutes or till golden. Serve warm. Makes 8 servings.

*taken from the adage: “You can take the girl out of Fairlawn but you cannot take Fairlawn out of the girl!”