Rhubarb celebration comes to Lenox

LENOX – It’s that time of year. Every spring in New England, a certain tangy fruit seems to sprout up in every yard, and now an event has been planned to celebrate it.

The First Annual Rhubarb Festival is happening in Lenox on Saturday, May 25 in Reading Park at 18 Main St. from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

The event will feature two cooking contests centered on the tart fruit. There will be a Rhubarb Chili contest with entries from Lenox restaurants and a Rhubarb Pie contest open to the general public. Cash prizes for the top three places in each contest will be awarded.

The event hopes to become an annual tradition and received funding from the town’s events committee. The Rhubarb Festival Planning Committee members are Suzanne Pelton, Lynn Sutton, Katie Armstrong, Dalija Merritt and Michelle Day.

“I’ve been thinking a Rhubarb Festival was a natural for Lenox for a long time. Rhubarb first came to America through Massachusetts in the 1820s,” said Mrs. Pelton. “Once you have it, it just keeps coming up every ear. And if you provide a little compost in the fall, it will spread, and you’ll have more rhubarb than you know what to do with.”

Admission to the event is free and organizers hope to provide fun and games for the whole family.

Those games include a rhubarb stalk throwing contest, a “Green Eggs and Rhubarb” obstacle course and Rhubarb Hoops, involving rhubarb stalk free throws.

Mrs. Pelton said an event like this really fits into the region, explaining, “Probably half of Lenox residents have it in their backyard.”

With that in mind, prizes will also be awarded for longest, thickest rhubarb stalk and biggest leaf. If you have plants in your yard, you can bring your entries to the festival from 10-11 a.m.

One very unique part of the event is the Rhubarb Rant Speakers Corner. Rhubarb Rant is a soapbox corner where people pay $1 to talk about any subject for as long as they want, or until the crowd chants, “Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb” to get the speaker to stop.

The chanting idea comes from the United Kingdom, where the phrase implies the speaker is using mumbo jumbo or making no sense.

The Rhubarb Festival Committee is producing two booklets for sale:  “Things You Never Knew About Rhubarb” and “Unusual and Popular Rhubarb Recipes.”

Mrs. Pelton said many great rhubarb recipes get passed down from generation to generation.

“My mother made stewed rhubarb every year,” she said. “I’ve had much better luck with rhubarb-upside-down cake in my family. Not the sort of dessert you make every week but a big hit with company.”

Posted by Kameron Z. Spaulding on May 9, 2013. Filed under Community Events,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry