Do they even grow rhubarb where you live?
Here, the rhubarb is popping up big and leafy....just fond someone with a patch and go pull some.
I suppose you could use limp rhubarb for pie....like you could use limp celery for soup...
Limp rhubarb or no rhubarb? I'll take the limp stuff....

I don't know if anyone grows it here. Maybe it's not a suitable climate or it simply isn't popular here.

I don't think you have enough "dormant time"...not a long enough winter.
Hot house rhubarb....what a concept!!

Rhubarb isn't readily available in stores here either. I don't know if it's because there's an assumption that people who want it grow it...or, if it's become rather passe & grocers now give the space to things like mangoes, papayas, star fruit, etc. Certainly our climate is conducive to growing rhubarb but if you don't, it's hard to buy. Even Whole Foods didn't have much.

/tricia

I looked up growing rhubarb. Yes, one needs a good hard cold snap. We rarely get those. I also think it has fallen out of fashion.

I can usually find fresh rhubarb at Von's.... if you're in CA.

We have Safeway (same as Von's) in Northern CA. I'll check there, it's close to home. Thanks!

Eileen, I agree, I think it's fallen out of favor. Even here I seldom see it at the grocery stores, but I grow my own. It does need colder weather, so my 90 day growing period here is perfect, LOL.

I'd take limp over none at all, since you're going to be baking pie and it'll cook down anyway. I've left rhubarb sitting for a couple of days before using it and it does get kind of limp (sort of like celery), but it's still fine when cooked.

Annie

I don't think rhubarb ever was in favor!! LOL! It was just always there....sort of like the clump of chives in the corner by the back door.
Old timers here call it pie plant...or maybe just those of German heritage. And I am near "The Amanas" a German group of communities who make and sell "piestangle" a rhubarb wine....which is sort of good in a funky sweetish way.
Maybe it's time to make a pie....and share lest I eat it all!
Linda C

LindaC, it's called pie plant here too, and we are definitely not German, LOL. I've never had rhubarb wine, though, and our German foreign exchange student told me she didn't like rhubarb. She told me that her mother made it at home and they ate it as a vegetable side dish. Just boiled with salt and pepper. No wonder she didn't like it. She did like rhubarb pie, though, and asked for the recipe to take home to her mother.

Annie

I have learned that piestangle is German for rhubarb...and rhubarb wine is called piestanglewein...and i am guessing that the term "pie plant" came from the German word for rhubarb...
Just a guess....

My grandmother told me that Rhubarb was always grown by the outhouse. Any time a girl/woman went to the outhouse she would always bring back a few stalks of Rhubarb -- if asked, one could say they were out picking Rhubarb.

I still LOVE rhubarb!

Another fan of rhubarb here. Maybe it is a northern/midwest thing. I know most of the homes we lived in up north more than likely had rhubarb growing some place in the yard. I remember my DGM making a sauce that we would serve over ice cream or angel food cake. Those restaurants that offer many different pies always have strawberry rhubarb pie on the menu.

Eileen, I've used frozen with no problem at all. The only thing I do is defrost and drain it well. I've found it in the stores down here too. It is hit or miss but hey do have it. I agree with Annie, a little limp will be fine in a pie.

Now I'm craving rhubarb pie....with or without strawberries!

David

My German mother from Iowa made sweetened rhubarb pudding that she served as a side dish. We poured sweetened milk with nutmeg in it over the pudding. It was a once/twice a year thing & then done for another year (as was the rhubarb). Might be a connection between Mom's pudding & the side dish your exchange student had at home, Annie?

/tricia

Maybe, Tricia, but she was quite clear that it was eaten as a vegetable and that it was not sweet at all, and that she didn't like it.

Like David, I also use frozen rhubarb, because if I have a lot, I wash it, slice it and freeze it so I can bake rhubarb pie at Christmas. Although it softens a bit from the freezing, when cooked I can't tell the difference so I think even if it's a little limp, it'll cook up fine.

Annie

It is very popular here when it is in season. The German word for rhubarb is rhabarber.
Lisa

Thank you, Lisa, when Marcia pronounced it to me, it sounded like "Ru-baa-baa", so I missed the "r"s entirely.

Annie

Now I am confused....why does the site below say that piestangle is rhubarb?
Linda c

Here is a link that might be useful: Translations

LindaC, maybe that's the translation for "pie plant"? I don't know, or maybe it's a regional thing, but Marcia (pronounced Mar See Uh, incidentally), called it "rubaabaa" and it was not eaten sweetened.

Annie

Linda, German-Russians lived in distinct & separate villages in Russia. They brought their 16th century German with them to Russia but as time went on each village developed its own dialect. You'll have a difficult time getting 2 German-Russians from different villages agreeing on what the proper German word for "aunt" is much less rhubarb. When they immigrated to America they tended to congregate by village into certain areas of the US. My village, Norka, practically moved the entire village to Portland, Oregon. Mid-western German-Russians came from different villages & their speech patterns are very different. Texas' German-Russians speak yet a different dialect. Their language is mixed with Russian, Polish, Slav, even some mid-eastern. It's a mess for genealogists & cooks alike.

/tricia

Not much different than English. You'll probably never get a Yankee and a Southerner to call something the same thing, either! LOL
If I had to guess then I would have to say that piestangle is a slang word. The word pie doesn't even exist here as far as I know. None of the Germans I know even know what a pie is.
Lisa