The force is with us

Early February, dark and cold, is not a time of great excitement in seasonal foods except for one beauty that never fails to lift the spirits – Yorkshire rhubarb. We are not talking the thick, stringy, acidic stalks found lurking at the bottom of the garden but the sweet, slender, brightly coloured stems of the forced variety.

This season there was a snag. Two spring droughts in a row and a lack of frost this winter were an unhelpful combination for the rhubarb crowns or roots which begin their lives outdoors for two to three years.

Growers delayed bringing them into the forcing sheds. Despite this blip and a slow start, things are now up to speed although yields are slightly down. Everything is on track for the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival at the end of this month.

The public love new season rhubarb, as does the catering industry and there is a frenetic race every year to be the first chef or restaurant to feature it on the menu such is its popularity. But it wasn’t always this way.

Britain had had its fill of the stuff during the war when there was little else to choose from and in post-war Britain rhubarb was deemed old fashioned alongside the, newer, chic imported fruits and vegetables. The exile of this once-loved British vegetable (yes it is a veg) took with it practically a whole industry. Before the Second World War there were more than 200 rhubarb growers in Yorkshire, who in the main growing season shipped more than 200 tons every night on the Rhubarb Express train from Leeds to London, then out into Europe.

Today, there remains three big producers and eight smaller growers in what is known as the Rhubarb Triangle of Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield, but they are a force to be reckoned with. The revival came on the back of the resurgence of interest in locally grown produce as well as the highly publicised, and ultimately successful, campaign to protect the traditionally grown rhubarb under the EU’s Protected Designation of Origin status.

The PDO is there to protect the name and the uniqueness of Yorkshire rhubarb from the deluge of foreign imports imitating the forcing method and to assure the consumer that when buying Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb it is of the expected quality and flavour and grown in the traditional manner.

The forcing of rhubarb crowns began by accident in the physic garden at Chelsea in 1817 when rhubarb crowns accidentally covered with soil revealed a way of growing rhubarb that resulted in a sweeter, more tender and less astringent stalk.

There are three major components to successful forcing, the rhubarb crown needs cold, it needs a lot of water and a good supply of nitrogen, all of which West Yorkshire has in abundance. The triangle sits in a frost pocket, the proximity of the Pennines provides the ample water supply and nitrogen came courtesy of the shoddy (waste wool) from the nearby woollen mills which was used as fertiliser. Back then a good rail network also assisted in the distribution of the rhubarb.

The gargantuan sheds used for forcing are dark save for candlelight which, contrary to belief, is not for the rhubarb to grow but for the pickers to be able to see what they are doing. Any light will start the process of photosynthesis so the area around the candles is cleared of rhubarb and when there is no-one in the sheds, the candles are extinguished.

Two to three year-old old rhubarb roots are first lifted from the fields only after they have been exposed to frost and are then planted in the sheds. Once in the sheds the plant is deprived of light and of food which “forces” the root to begin growing the rhubarb stalks.

It grows quickly, so quickly that it is possible if it is quiet in the shed to hear the popping sound as the stalks are pushed out from the bud. The rhubarb must then be harvested by hand, a time-consuming process as each stem must be removed intact from the root as any remnant of stalk left in the bud could rot and potentially cause botrytis, a fungus which can quickly spread to the whole shed. Forcing is a precarious process as seen this year when the weather affected the crop.

Without doubt rhubarb is one of the most versatile foods in the hands of a cook or chef. It can be stewed, roasted, baked or boiled. It is as happy as a comforting, stodgy pudding as it is in a sophisticated jelly. It plays nicely with fatty meats and oily fish, makes a delicious jam or partner to hot spices and exotic fruits in a chutney or relish. Watch it turn from vegetable to wine, add a glow to vodka or a blush to a summer cordial. How many other vegetables do you know that can do that?

Yorkshire Rhubarb is now back on the world stage and is so celebrated here in Yorkshire it even has its own festival in Wakefield, and rhubarb aficionados can tour the sheds with the Oldroyd’s Rhubarb Experience during February and March.

The Great Book of Rhubarb by Elaine Lemm, from Great Northern Books at £7.99.

Wakefield Rhubarb Festival, February 24 to 26. Further details www.experiencewakefield.co.uk

Oldroyd’s Rhubarb Tours www.yorkshirerhubarb.co.uk