Pearlie's Rhubarb Pie

6 cups rhubarb
2 cups sugar
2/3 cups flour
Pie Crust

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll 2/3 of pie crust into a rectangle to fit the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. In a large bowl toss rhubarb with sugar and flour and pour into pan. Roll the remaining pie crust and cover. Poke top crust with fork. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees, move to top rack, and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes.

Pie Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
 5 to 7 tablespoons cold water.
Mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening with your hands till crumbly. Sprinkle water over 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing mixture after each addition. Form into ball; flatten on lightly floured surface. Roll 1/8 inch thick from center to edge.

~♥~

The food we most associate with mom is her Rhubarb pie. She had a huge rhubarb patch under her grapevine that divided the house from her garden lot. She always had a freezer full of rhubarb and shared it with the family. Mom didn't have a written recipe for her pie, but after watching her for years this is close to what she made. Donna said she had a recipe, but hasn't found it yet.

Mom made her rhubarb pie in a 9x13 pan because that fit the amount of rhubarb she froze in saved bread bags and it fed a large family. Everything was mixed by hand. I made a lot of rhubarb pie for my family as they were growing up also. I created a different recipe, but used the skills mom taught me about making pie crust.

I never cared about cooking growing up, but the one thing I enjoyed watching and helping make was pies. Partially so I could eat the raw dough and partially because I thought it was fascinating. Mom had a huge tub of flour she kept by the stove. When she made pie crust she just scooped out handfuls of flour in a large bowl and with the spoon she kept in the shortening added a heaping spoon full. She use her hands to mix them together until it crumbled.

Then she took the bowl to the sink and started adding water and mixed with her hands. When it was the right texture she shaped it into a ball. She let me feel what the dough was like and explained that it was important in making pie crust to know the right texture. Pie crust is very tricky to make. The recipe is simple, but you really need to work with someone to learn the finer skills. - Brenda Dawson

 This was taken at Mom's in 1981. You can see the rhubarb patch in the background along the fence.