Monday, 27 April 2020

Lockdown Day 35 - Rhubarb

Just a quick one today, but right now there's lots of rhubarb ready to pick from the allotment.
The area where I grew up is in the "Rhubarb Triangle"  near Leeds where the soil and weather conditions are very suitable for growing rhubarb, both outside and in forcing sheds. In the latter, early rhubarb is grown in the dark, with just candlelight and I am told that you can often hear it growing! (There was a rhubarb shed in the field just down the road from our house). In recent years a campaign by local farmers was able to obtain PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) for Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb from the EU, though how that will be protected in future years I have no idea. There is still - at least when there is no lockdown - a Rhubarb festival in the area.


Our rhubarb was a cutting from the plant at my parents' house (where they still live in the house I grew up in). It is easy to split in winter by just simply using a spade to chop off a section of the root and then putting the cutting into a hole with plenty of manure and/or compost. In the next few days I am going to make a compote with it for use with yogurt or porridge.

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