Should be found in any decent grocery store........it is in all of my local ones and I'm not exactly living in a highly urban environment :-)

I think they maybe at the farmer's markets right about now.

I found a produce stand on 15th and 65th that has it. It's called Rising Sun Farms, in case anyone else is interested. Going to also check out the U District farmers market on Saturday.

I've been avoiding the grocery store for strawberries because the few I've tasted have been brought in from out of state and taste very bland. And I"m not entirely sure what rhubarb is supposed to taste like so I figured getting it from a local grower would be better.

Grocery store strawberries are going to be from California this time of year and they are very bland, no doubt about it.

However, rhubarb is likely local and it all tastes the same anyway.

...and that's one big advantage to rhubarb over strawberries--it always tastes the same. Some grocery store rhubarb can become rubbery, so home garden or farmer's market stuff my be fresher. The jam-making process evens it all out anyway.

mmmm...I love strawberry-rhubarb pie! I see acres of rhubarb growing in the Sumner-Orting Valley, but I s'pose they ship most of it. I have 1 rhubarb plant, but it doesn't yet produce enough to do anything with. I'd really like to find (as in swap) a good-sized plant that produces red-fleshed stems...nice pink color when cooked. Rhubarb sauce was a special treat every spring when I was growing up.

Good quality rhubarb is usually produced well ahead of strawberry season. I grew up with the belief that once the plant sends up flower stalks, the leaf stalks become tough. I s'pose the thing to do is freeze the rhubarb when it's at its best, then use it with the berries when they start bearing.

Frozen rhubarb will do for jam and sauce, but pies and crisps will have a different consistency when made from frozen material.

And canned rhubarb is much like thawed frozen rhubarb.

The flower stalk is so easy to tell apart from the leaves that it can be cut out very early. Regularly-watered and harvested rhubarb does not become tough. I get 4 harvests late April to early September. The second harvest in June coincides with local strawberries.

good tip to freeze rhubarb! I started some preserves yesterday and it's so good I"m sure I'll make it again this season.

When does strawberry season start?

Your rhubarb looks fantastic, Larry!

Local strawberries tend to be ready roughly around Father's Day......midJune. However, weather always is a factor and with this year's cool, damp spring, they could be later.

FWIW, there is NOTHING to compare between the taste of locally grown strawberries and those enormous, steroid-induced, tasteless things from CA they sell as strawberries!

You are so right. A few of the strawberries were as big as apples but completely tasteless. I can't wait for U-pick time!

You are so right. A few of the strawberries were as big as apples but completely tasteless. I can't wait for U-pick time!

Great info Larry. Your rhubarb looks really good.

The Barn in Portland had local strawberries, yesterday! It is a fruit/veggie stand in a big red barn on NE 148th just north of Airport Way, south of Marine Dr. They had rhubarb too.

Thanks for the photo comments. The picture is from 2006 and is the rhubarb remaining immediately after a harvest, where all the older stalks on the ground and at low angles have been pulled off.

Slug bait pellets are used around this rhubarb on occasion.

It is about time for harvest #2 this year. Local strawberries should be widely available by mid-month. Some U-pick notices are already in the paper.

The Barn rhubarb is still on display during peach season when we visit.

Larry, how many plants in that picture? At first glance I thought two, but looking closer I can't really tell

Yes, two plants. These were on the property when I moved here in 1990. Probably two different varieties; they have been moved 3 times, kept getting in the pathways.