How to Freeze Rhubarb

Freezing is the best way to preserve fresh rhubarb for baking

If you love rhubarb as much as I do, this is one post you will want to hang onto. How to freeze rhubarb is a handy thing to know, and so simple to do.

Why I love rhubarb

My favorite thing about rhubarb is how it leaps out of the ground in the spring and by the second week of May, you can begin your first harvest. It is a definite sign of a season we so look forward to, here in Upstate NY. It is low maintenance.

Keep it watered, weeded, and give a good dose of fertilizer a couple of times through the summer, and it will reward you a million times over. No growing thing is zero maintenance, but rhubarb is about as easy as it gets.

It’s even pretty, with broad green leaves and pretty stalks in various shades of red, pink and green.

There are many varieties of rhubarb

‘Victoria’ is probably the most common, having been available for well over 100 years. It’s what I think of as the old-fashioned farmhouse rhubarb because it seems like every farmhouse around us has a big patch growing. ‘KangaRhu’ is a more recent introduction from Gurney Seed Company – it is a bit more heat tolerant and very deep red. I’ve lost the tag to the plant these stalks came from, but I’m pretty sure they’re from my ‘Canada Red’ plant and ‘Victoria’.

Check out what your local garden center carries and suggests. They want you to succeed with the plants you buy from them, so they will usually give you good advice.

How to harvest your rhubarb

For the health of your rhubarb patch, it is important to harvest it correctly. Young plants in the first few years need to grow and store up energy to get bigger. We don’t harvest at all the first year. In the second year, you can take one harvest of about half the stalks. The third year two harvests of about half the stalks.

After the third year, you can harvest quite a bit, but I still try not to take more than half the stalks at any one time.

Don’t cut rhubarb – twist

Grasp each stalk close to the ground and pull the stalk with a gentle twisting motion. This ensures that the plant continues to produce fresh stalks for a longer period of time. Cutting stalks does not encourage the same amount of regrowth.

After harvesting your rhubarb [even if you “harvest” yours from the grocery store or Farmer’s Market], give it a good wash. The leaves should already be trimmed off. Rhubarb leaves are toxic, so leave them outside. They’re actually very good mulch for your plants, so if you have your own rhubarb, just leave them on the ground where you cut off the stalks.

Dry the stalks before cutting them

You want the stalks dry so the pieces won’t stick together in the freezer. It’s not difficult – just hold a clean dish towel folded over in your hand, and run each washed stalk through it to remove most all of the moisture. Since you want your rhubarb to be as fresh as you can manage, letting sit until it dries isn’t such a great idea. Drying the stalks before cutting ensures they won’t stick together in the freezer.

Cut the rhubarb into evenly sized pieces

How big depends on how you plan to use it. For something like Maple Walnut Rhubarb Crisp, I like to cut fresh stalks in slightly bigger pieces, so that it keeps some texture. Frozen rhubarb will be on the mushy side anyway, so bigger pieces might mean a bit more texture. Rhubarb loses most of its texture when you cook it anyway, so ultimately it’s not going to matter that much. Small pieces will freeze more quickly.

Spread the cut pieces on a baking sheet

I prefer not to freeze rhubarb in a bag. Spreading it out on a baking sheet keeps it from sticking together so much in the freezer, making it easier to use later on. I like to line my baking sheets with flour sacking towels, rather than parchment or foil [the rhubarb will stick to a bare pan pretty badly, even if you dry it off.]

It doesn’t have to be frozen in a single layer

Most websites seem to advise only freezing rhubarb in a single layer, but that is totally impractical. Unless you are only freezing a small amount or your freezers are far emptier than mine, a single layer isn’t going to work. The amount I froze today would take 4 sheet pans in a single layer. I don’t have that kind of real estate available in my freezers.

If the rhubarb is dry when you put it on the baking sheet, it will not stick together very much. The pieces are easily broken back apart as you put them into the freezer bags. So, it’s fine to pile it up a couple of layers thick. Lay the sheet pan as levelly as possible on a shelf in the freezer.

Freeze for at least 4 hours

I’m not going to pretend I remember to take mine out of the freezer after 4 hours. If I’m being honest, it is often the next day that I remember to bag them up. It is perfectly fine if it 24 hours later when you think about the rhubarb again. The quality will still be fine, and the freezer probably dries them out a little bit, so that they are even less likely to stick together in a clump.

Here is my method for freezing rhubarb

Off the tray and into bags

Once the rhubarb is frozen completely solid, scoop it into freezer bags and get it right back in the freezer.

Putting the frozen rhubarb in a large measuring cup makes it easier to get it in the freezer bags.

How long will frozen rhubarb stay fresh?

This rhubarb will still be perfect for about 6 months. It’s important to make sure to squeeze out all the air before sealing the bags. I often use my vacuum sealer for freezing fruit, but I want to show you that regular ziplock bags work just fine. After 6 months, the rhubarb will still be safe to eat, but it might lose a little bit of flavor.

Finally, I will leave you a list of my personal favorite rhubarb recipes, all of which will work quite with frozen or fresh rhubarb.

Easy Rhubarb Cake

Maple Walnut Rhubarb Crisp

Strawberry Rhubarb Sherbet

Rhubarb Kuchen

Brown Butter Rhubarb Cake

Do I need to thaw rhubarb to use it in baking?

For many recipes it will not matter if the rhubarb is thawed out. It doesn’t matter at all when the rhubarb makes a layer as it does in the Rhubarb Crisp above. If you mix frozen rhubarb into a cake batter, it just might take the cake a few more minutes to bake. I usually get the rhubarb out of the freezer a little bit ahead, so that it is at least partially thawed, which doesn’t interfere so much with the baking time.