Whether it be the aroma of mom in the kitchen baking a rhubarb pie or helping to create jar after jar of rhubarb jam, rhubarb harvesting season brings fond childhood memories of the start of summer for many.

This is especially true for Donna Lahr, promotions manager for the Montezuma Winery.

“Rhubarb goes way back,” she said. “I can remember my mother making different rhubarb recipes when I was a kid. My mother has always said the same thing of when she was a kid.”

It was this childhood memory, along with the fact that Montezuma Winery boasts two spectacular rhubarb wine recipes, that led to the creation of this weekend's Olde-Tyme Rhubarb Festival.

The festival, which will be held at the Montezuma Winery, will center around rhubarb harvesting and its various recipes and uses.

Lahr, along with the many employees of the winery, have even come up with a few untraditional yet fun uses for the plant.

“The reason that we had decided to hold the rhubarb festival was that many people have fond memories of rhubarb as a child,” she said. “And the winery has two rhubarb wines - a sparkling wine and a dessert wine. We thought that holding a festival with a theme of rhubarb would be very fitting.”

The festival will feature wine tasting samples and various rhubarb recipes, such as pies, jams, muffins and fresh rhubarb crisp, among others.

A rhubarb wine slushie will also be available for those with a sweet tooth.

Lahr has also created a few games to be played with the edible plant and will feature a Rhubarb Mini Olympics.

Games such as a rhubarb stalk throw, in which the rhubarb stalk complete with the leaves still attached will be thrown much like a javelin throw. Or, rhubarb hole-in-one golf, where the putter that is used is actually a stalk of rhubarb. One can even try their hand at the rhubarb race, a test of speed and accuracy where an egg must be balanced on the end of a rhubarb stalk through the course of the race.

Lahr said that a classic car show will be in attendance at the festival, as well as old-time music provided by the local band, Muckland Crooners.

Also to be featured is the Cayuga Lake Creamery serving a strawberry rhubarb wine sorbet, as well as rhubarb ice cream.

“We are planning to make the festival an annual event,” Lahr said. “It is going to be a good time.”

Although the winery is typically an adult-oriented destination, Lahr said that the rhubarb festival will have events to please all family members.

“It will be held outdoors and have a family-friendly atmosphere,” she said. “The games and such will be for the kids although adults are more than welcome to participate.”

Games, raffles and various prizes will round out the afternoon.

If you go

What: Olde-Tyme Rhubarb Festival

When: Noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 7

Where: Montezuma Winery, 2981 Auburn Road, Seneca Falls

Cost: Admission is free

To learn more: Call 568-8190 or e-mail info@montezumawinery.com