What is rhubarb fruit or vegetable

HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. All rights reserved. This is what rhubarb looks like as a plant:. This is what rhubarb looks like in pie:. Is it a fruit? Is it a vegetable? Most people don't really seem to know, but they know one thing for sure: They've never tasted anything quite like it. You'd be forgiven for thinking that we're referring to a tomato , but there's actually another red-hued plant on our mind: rhubarb.

Rhubarb is a plant known for its frilly green leaves more on those later and its sour — and vividly red — stalks that resemble celery in shape and texture. Although rhubarb originated in Asia, it is now grown across Europe and North America, most famously in the Rhubarb Triangle , which is the area between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell in the U. In the United States, the Pacific Northwest is perhaps the most common area for growing rhubarb, as the plant thrives in that climate.

Richter's great-grandfather went west from Minnesota during the Gold Rush, but he missed the boat on that opportunity and instead started a family farm growing rhubarb and other crops in the late s.

The farm has been passed down through the generations, and Richter's son now also helps run the farm. They kind of like the moist, mild climate, and that's what you've got in Washington, specifically western Washington," says Richter. The stalks start to turn quite green. Not all rhubarb tastes or looks the same. Two different varieties of rhubarb compete on the market: field rhubarb and forced also known as hothouse rhubarb.

As the name implies, field rhubarb comes straight from the field. As field rhubarb becomes exposed to outdoor light, it can have a greener tinge and a slightly stringier texture when you crack open the stalk, according to Richter. Hothouse, on the other hand, requires a more deliberate, careful growing process, which entails depriving the rhubarb of light inside a hothouse in order to better draw out its natural red hue.

The only time that the rhubarb becomes exposed to indoor lighting is during the harvesting process. Richter explains the careful work that goes into raising hothouse rhubarb:. Richter explains that due to the lack of light exposure, the hothouse rhubarb leaves often turn "bright yellow" and the stalks turn into a "brilliant red" color. These unusual colors and the delicate growing process means that hothouse commands a premium price compared to field rhubarb.

I don't want to say one's better than the other. They're different. If you want to maximize its lifetime by up to three weeks, wrap it up in aluminum foil without crimping the ends, and store it in the fridge. Other ways in which you may tell that a rhubarb has gone bad is through its bad smell or if you find mold appearing on both the ends of the stalk. Want to learn more about it? Check out the review we did on it. Hey there! My name is Alex and I've been vegan for more than three years!

I've set up this blog because I'm really passionate about veganism and living a more eco-conscious life. Throughout history, rhubarb has been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It has a sour, brutally bitter taste, so most people prefer to cook it with sugar. Rhubarb became a popular addition to pies and other desserts in the 18th and 19th centuries after sugar became widely available in England.

Today, rhubarb is used in a similar way—and is commonly paired with strawberries to balance its sour-bitter flavor. We only eat the pink stalks of the rhubarb plant—the triangular leaves contain high levels of a poisonous chemical called oxalic acid. So, yeah, stick to the stalk. In , a New York court actually made the distinction. The reason being, rhubarb is most often cooked as fruit in the United States.

Although you can sometimes buy rhubarb as early as February, rhubarb season runs from April through June.