Boulder Market Meals: Rhubarb steps beyond pie season in this classic Gold Hill cake

Market Meals is a collaboration between Boulder Reporting Lab and the Boulder County Farmers Markets, featuring weekly seasonal recipes built around ingredients from local growers, ranchers and food producers. Find it in Nibbles every Tuesday and on Boulder Reporting Lab. Sign up to get Nibbles in your inbox.

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Rhubarb is a perennial plant, meaning it grows back year after year. Although technically a vegetable, it is now considered to be a fruit, most commonly starring in strawberry rhubarb pies. 

It was ideal for high altitude planting because it is able to withstand cold temperatures and remains a prevalent crop in Colorado today.

Also known as the “pie plant,” rhubarb originated in Asia and traveled to the Western U.S. with the first settlers. Some of the rhubarb plants planted by early settlers are still producing on historic properties.  

(The Colorado State University Extension service offers detailed information about growing and using varieties of rhubarb including Colorado Red.)

Rhubarb popped up early in the appropriately named town of Gold Hill west of Boulder. The town was settled in 1859 when this area was part of the Nebraska Territory. Gold Hill was the location of Colorado’s first big Gold Rush. The Gold Hill Inn Gold Hill Inn opened as a dining hall in 1924 and became a destination restaurant in 1962. 

Traditional recipes often feature rhubarb in pies as well in some savory dishes. This simple sweet-tart cake recipe from the Gold Hill Inn, collected in the “Gold Hill Compendium” cookbook, offers another classic way to use the spring stalks.

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Gold Hill Rhubarb Cake

• ½ cup butter
• 1½ cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Topping:
• About 2 cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Combine flour, salt and baking soda, and add dry mix, alternating with buttermilk.

Butter a cake pan and pour batter in. Combine remaining ingredients and sprinkle on top of batter. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

What’s fresh this week? Farmers will be offering rhubarb, plant starts, turnips, beets, mushrooms, herbs, greenhouse grown tomatoes and cucumbers, microgreens, asparagus, salad greens, green garlic, and more this week at the Boulder Farmers Market and the Longmont Farmers Market. 

Need a recipe for a specific summer produce item? Let us know at [email protected].

Visiting the Markets

Boulder Farmers Market

• 13th Street between Arapahoe Ave. and Canyon Blvd.
• 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturdays, April 4-Nov. 21; 3:30-7:30 p.m., Wednesdays, May 6-Oct. 7
• More information

Longmont Farmers Market

• Boulder County Fairgrounds
• 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays, April 4-Nov. 21
• More information 

Have a tip or suggestion? Send your comments, questions and ideas to [email protected].

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