With her rhubarb ketchup, Susan Dietrich has found a clever use for June's tart red stalks. Not that she'll take any credit for it. "You're going to think that I don't have an original idea in my head," she said with a laugh. Hardly. Mill City Farmers Market shoppers who regularly peruse Dietrich's Very Prairie stand know to expect the unexpected, so why not a tangy rhubarb condiment?
Rhubarb ketchup at Mill City Farmers Market
Rhubarb-loving friends pelted her with suggestions. One steered Dietrich toward a Jean-Georges Vongerichten recipe; another pal, mindful of Dietrich's locavore -- or, in her case, "prairievore" -- roots, proposed adding orange-infused Ratafia from Alexis Bailly Vineyards in Hastings. "Oh, wait, I did come up with using buckwheat honey [from Ames Farm Honey] in place of sugar," said Dietrich. "Buckwheat and rhubarb are in the same family, so there's a synergy there."
The result? A lively contrast to the one-note tomato taste associated with traditionalists like Heinz and Hunt's. Hurry in, because rhubarb season will be over in a flash, and with it, Dietrich's limited supply of rhubarb ketchup. "And then we'll be on to something else," she said. "Heirloom tomato ketchup, cranberry ketchup. I see lots of convergence."
Very Prairie rhubarb ketchup, $4.50 for 5 1/2 oz., $6 for 10 oz. Mill City Farmers Market, 2nd St. and Chicago Av. S., Minneapolis, 612-341-7580, www.millcityfarmersmarket.org. Open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.
RICK NELSON
For a complete list of Twin Cities metro area farmers markets, go to www.startribune.com/taste.
about the writer
Minnesota brewers’ 2024 Autumn Brew Review announced with THC drinks, collaboration beers
The 23rd installment of the beer fest will take place Oct. 12 at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis.