Vegetable and Fruit Day at the Produce Growers Conference in Palmer may not have the cachet of Potato Day -- yes, the tuber rated its very own day at the two-day conference -- but some farmers see an opportunity in the slender stalks of the rhubarb plant.

Palmer grower Carol Kenley sells produce at the Wednesday South Anchorage Farmer's Market during the summer. She's always had rhubarb to sell but usually ended up taking it back home. Over the past two or three years, however, she's been selling out.

"Why bother with marginal crops (like corn)? Rhubarb we can just grow," Kenley said.

Last year she harvested from 150 plants.

"It's the first thing I can harvest in the spring," Kenley said. She tries to have rhubarb pie by Mother's Day, and the plants will last until the first autumn frost.

Doug Warner, with the State of Alaska Division of Agriculture, presented a recently submitted rhubarb research proposal on Wednesday. The grant, if funded, will explore markets for the perennial crop, as well as support local rhubarb producers. A lot of rhubarb comes into the state, said Warner, even though "we produce some of the best rhubarb in the world."

Potential products include fresh and frozen stalks and rhubarb juice. Bruce Bush of Bushes Bunches sold a rhubarb-lemonade mixture at the Alaska State Fair last year, which he said was very popular.

"Why are we importing?" Kenley asked. "Why aren't we exporting?"

Though she's involved promoting Southcentral's rhubarb crop, Kenley said she doesn't want to increase her own production, but is rather looking to Alaska's agricultural future.

"This is something we can develop for the area," she said.

Longtime valley farmer Ben Vanderweele experimented with rhubarb when he first moved to the area in the 1960s, and some of those early plants are still producing.

"We considered rhubarb like a weed," he said. "You can't kill it. It's so easy to grow. Once you plant it it's there forever."

Contact Stephen Nowers at stephen(at)alaskadispatch.com.