SUMNER, Wash. — Roger Knutson’s crew reached beneath large green leaves to gather armfuls of thick, red rhubarb stalks on an overcast May morning.

They removed the leaves and loaded the stalks into cardboard boxes bearing the slogan: “The finest rhubarb Washington has to offer.”

A short distance away, Jake Sterino and sons Gavin and Vincent walked through their rhubarb field. They will let the crop grow and transfer it to a hothouse in January to produce an early harvest.

Sterino runs a market in Puyallup, Wash., selling rhubarb alongside fresh produce and flowers.

Nearby, on Tim Richter’s farm, a bald eagle flew overhead, keeping the rodent population down as he and son Timothy inspected their rhubarb field.

They are among only a handful of rhubarb farmers who remain in Pierce County, Knutson said.

“Sixty years ago, there was probably 50 rhubarb growers around, and right now, besides myself, there’s only about three others, and they’re smaller,” he said.

Rhubarb is a different kind of niche crop. A herbaceous perennial plant, it is a part of the buckwheat family. Its stalks are harvested starting in the spring and used as an ingredient in pies and other baked goods. Raw rhubarb is tart, but it becomes sweet when baked.

Nationwide, about 2,800 farms harvested about 1,500 acres of rhubarb in 2017, according to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture.

New generations

The next generations are poised to take over each farm and have plans to put their own imprint on them.

Knutson’s son-in-law, Brian Anderson, 45, has diversified the operation, promoting agritourism and opening a year-round flower shop.

Vincent Sterino, 22, hopes to take over farming duties, while brother Gavin Sterino, 32, plans to manage the business side.

Timothy Richter, 38, also hopes to eventually take over.

“It’s kind of a large task, it really is not a one-person job,” he said. “I’m going to try to keep it going as long as I can.”

But they all wonder whether the rhubarb market can continue to sustain their long-running family farms.

Knutson Farms

Knutson Farms is one of the largest rhubarb shippers in the nation, raising 170 acres of it each year. Rhubarb is 60% of the total farm, Knutson said.

“We’re sitting at a place right now where we can sell our rhubarb, and if we grew more, we probably wouldn’t have a sale for it,” he said.

Knutson Farms began raising rhubarb in 1939. Knutson’s parents moved into the area from South Dakota during the Dust Bowl. They were primarily bulb farmers — daffodils, tulips and irises — but also always had rhubarb.

As it became tougher to compete with bulbs grown overseas, the farm increased its rhubarb production.

Of the 75 to 90 workers the farm employs, about 55 to 60 work on the rhubarb crop, Knutson said.

The farm works with an apple-packing warehouse to pack and ship its rhubarb.

“If somebody out in the middle of Kansas needs a little bit of rhubarb, how do you get it to them?” Knutson said. “Well, they’re going to have apples. So you put a pallet on the back of a load of apples and you get it there.”

Sterino Farms

“One thing about rhubarb — it’s a unique Northwest item,” Jake Sterino said. “No one else really can do what we do with it up here.”

Sterino started raising rhubarb for the farm’s retail business about 25 years ago. Rhubarb is about 5% of the total vegetable farm, about 35 to 40 acres of 1,000 acres total.

They ship throughout the U.S.

In the spring, Sterino Farms employs up to 40 workers.

“It’s a nice springtime crop for us to keep our crew busy, so when we get into the summer time … then we can move right into our lettuces,” Sterino said.

EG Richter Family Farm

“We may not be the greatest area for growing some things, but we have the best climate, bar none — there’s nowhere that will grow better rhubarb than the Northwest,” Tim Richter said.

He’s a fourth-generation rhubarb farmer in Puyallup, Wash.

His great-grandfather moved West, bound for the turn-of-the-century gold rush in the Yukon and Alaska, but was “a little late.” Instead, he bought land in Washington in 1906, grew hops, made some money, “damn near lost the farm,” switched to berries and started “messing around with rhubarb” in the 1930s, Richter said.

About 25 acres are devoted to rhubarb, one-fifth of the 125-acre farm. They also raise various lettuces, cabbages and bok choi. All crops are equally important, Richter said.

Richter Family Farm sells rhubarb wholesale nationwide, in 20-pound cases. A thousand boxes per acre would be an ideal yield, he said. Some of the younger, more vigorous fields do better, and some of the older ones don’t quite reach that level.

Richter employs up to 35 workers in the summer.

“Rhubarb makes a nice start for us, because we’re busy planting all the vegetables,” he said. “We really can’t do that five, six days a week. We need something else. Rhubarb helps fill that gap.”

Increased costs

Rhubarb is profitable, but new state overtime pay requirements are costly, Sterino said.

“I don’t see us doing more, I see us doing less,” he said.

Labor, fuel, fertilizer, freight and carton costs have “gone through the roof,” Tim Richter said.

“I don’t know that we’re getting enough for (rhubarb) to do what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re not going broke or anything, but we’re getting squeezed all the time, and it’s getting harder.”

Market price is about $36 to $37 per 20-pound box.

Workers are paid at least $20 per hour, plus housing and transportation. Overtime pay tops $30 an hour, Richter said.

“By the time that box of rhubarb makes it back east, it’s an expensive rhubarb pie,” he said.

On Knutson Farms, workers harvest rhubarb six days a week, nine hours a day, from April to October, said Anderson, the son-in-law.

He said they will keep raising rhubarb as long as it’s profitable.

“I quit making a margin on rhubarb — it goes,” Knutson said. “I can’t afford to keep anything that’s not making a little money.”

Hothouse rhubarb

Each farm raises some hothouse rhubarb. It’s about 25% of Richter’s crop, 5% to 10% of Sterino’s and 5% of Knutson’s total operation.

The Richters plant a rhubarb plant roughly the size of a potato in the field for two summers, until it’s the size of a 100-pound ball.

After a dormancy period, they move it inside the hothouse, usually around Dec. 20.

“The closer you get to Christmas, the better our crops usually were, that was my dad’s theory,” Tim Richter said.

They soak the plants in water, lay them on the dirt floor, close the doors so no light gets in and keep the temperature at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

The plants anchor themselves to the ground, Richter said.

Thirty days later, they start picking.

“It grows rather rapidly in the hothouse,” Richter said.

Some people say you can hear the rhubarb grow, he said, but he’s not sure he believes it.

Then again. …

“I’ve been in the hothouse on a Sunday when nobody’s around, and when it’s quiet, you hear a little cracking,” he said. “Maybe it’s true. They do grow quite a bit in a day.”

“It’s kind of eerie, you can almost see it move a little bit,” son Timothy Richter said. “I don’t know if your eyes play tricks on you after a while, but it grows pretty quick, it’s kind of amazing.”

The first stick to emerge from each “eye” is the widest, reddest and most vigorous. Every stalk after that one is a little less so, Tim Richter said.

In a hothouse, workers gently select the longest sticks, making sure not to disturb the younger plants. They harvest several times each week until about April 1. The plants build to a peak, then peter out.

Sterino paused hothouse rhubarb due to COVID-19 uncertainty, but plans to resume.

This year, for the first time, Tim Richter didn’t plant hothouse rhubarb, citing the difficulty in keeping plant stock on hand and the cost.

“I’m not going to say we’re done with it forever, we’re trying to weigh it and see,” he said. “I didn’t think anybody would even miss it, but there were people who were kind of disappointed.”

Demand outlook

Knutson reports increased demand this season, but he’s not sure why.

The farm recently began mail-order sales with two-day delivery. Many sales came from Texas and Florida, where rhubarb is hard to find, Anderson said.

Things were slower for Richter and Sterino.

“This year, it was kind of a rocky start,” Timothy Richter said.

Richter’s demand eventually picked up, but many of Sterino’s regular customers turned to more local options.

Part of the reason may be that the older generation that sought out rhubarb is passing on, and newer customers are less familiar with it.

“Rhubarb’s not an apple, you don’t just bring it home and eat it,” Tim Richter said. “You’ve got to bake something with it, and that’s kind of a deterrent. People are all about ready-made everything.”

“It used to be that rhubarb was the first fruit out, really, and they’d make the rhubarb pie, then the strawberries,” Sterino said. “Now you can get strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, year-round.”

Once strictly a spring crop, rhubarb’s now available through the summer, he said. More grocery chains are beginning to handle it, he said.

“Maybe it’s going to pick up,” he said.

New acres unlikely

The Washington Rhubarb Growers Association is essentially inactive, the farmers said.

Many rhubarb farmers have retired and sold their ground, Sterino said.

“If you’re not born into it, it’s hard to start farming — the knowledge, the ground, the expense and the customer base and all those different things that go into it,” he said.

Knutson also doesn’t foresee rhubarb acreage increasing.

“Whatever you can pay the rent on and keep your property is what you’re going to grow,” he said.

It takes several years to establish rhubarb, Tim Richter said.

He’s attempted to improve root stock through tissue cultures, with mixed results, and would like to address some diseases.

“It’s not like there’s a seed catalog for rhubarb and we can go get some new varieties,” he said. “With rhubarb, we got what we got.”

He’s not aware of any research being undertaken.

“It’s such a minor crop that I don’t know that there’s financially any reward,” he said.

“I don’t know if we’re going to be the last,” Sterino said. “Who knows? Maybe someone will want to raise it up north in Mount Vernon or some of those areas.”

Next generation

Anderson, Knutson’s son-in-law, definitely feels the pressure of taking over the farm, both for the Sumner community and the Knutson family.

“We’re standing on the shoulders of the guys that have come before us,” he said. “I’m standing on Roger’s shoulders and he’s standing on his dad’s shoulders. You obviously want to keep going as long as you can.”

In the midst of all those rising costs, farmers have no choice but to keep their head down and keep doing their best work, Timothy Richter said.

“It’s either I’ve got to do it right, or not do it at all,” he said.

For Gavin Sterino, the answer is to make sure younger consumers know how best to prepare rhubarb, “just like every other generation has.”

“As long as you keep it fresh in people’s heads that rhubarb is a good thing, then you’re good,” he said.

• Rhubarb is a herbaceous perennial, a part of the buckwheat family. It is an ingredient in pies and other baked goods.

• Only the leafstalks are edible, according to USDA.

• Fresh rhubarb is available throughout the year, with most supplies marketed from January through August.

• In 2017, nearly 2,800 farms in the U.S. harvested about 1,500 acres of rhubarb, according to the most recent USDA Ag Census.

• Most of the nation’s rhubarb is grown in Washington state, Michigan and California, according to USDA. 

• The 2017 Ag Census lists rhubarb farms in every state except Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, South Carolina and Texas. 

• In Washington, 181 farms raised rhubarb on 275 acres in 2017, with 177 raising it for fresh market and 6 for processing. 

• In Michigan, about 220 farms raised rhubarb on 126 acres.

• In California, 62 farms grew an undisclosed number of acres of rhubarb.

• In New York, about 276 farms raised rhubarb on 66 acres.

• In Wisconsin, 225 farms raised 48 acres of rhubarb.

• In Oregon, about 108 farms raised rhubarb on 442 acres, 100 for the fresh market and 10 for processing.

• In Idaho, 15 farms grew rhubarb on 2 acres. 

https://knutsonfarms.us

http://sterinofarms.com

www.facebook.com/p/EG-Richter-Family-Farm-100064882290224