Why forced rhubarb

Tom Norrington-Davies celebrates the season of forced rhubarb, which is lured out of its hibernation to be the perfect foil for custard and crumbles. Written by the expert and completely food-obsessed team behind this website, our social channels and our monthly magazine. Some words just seem odd together. Blood and orange, for example, sounds a bit gothic, while champagne and rhubarb are hardly two words you would expect to utter in one breath.

Unless of course, you were in the know about, well, champagne rhubarb , which is actually more often referred to as forced rhubarb or winter rhubarb. The area around Wakefield in Yorkshire is famous for its rhubarb forcing sheds: long, low barn-like structures where the rhubarb is grown in darkness and picked by candlelight. And you thought blood oranges sounded spooky! I look forward to the season. Rhubarb is one of those strange fruits that never quite suited the summer strictly speaking, it is a vegetable like a chard or beet.

Rhubarb pie is splendid, and crumble is even better — but these are rib-sticking, winter puddings that cry out for jugs of heart-warming custard. Rhubarb and custard : now there is another odd couple that were actually made for each other. Rhubarb that is cheap as chips, stringy and sour, and the chalky blandness of powdered custard — somehow it just works.

In fact, if you are generally suspicious of rhubarb, now is the time to try it. For one, it is so pretty pink that it almost looks like candy. Rhubarb once commanded three times the price of opium and saffron Credit: Mike MacEacheran. The distiller steeps the plant in alcohol for six weeks before it is distilled, creating a sweet gin that is beginning to rival the traditional juniper-based version in the wider county.

In the past few years, the county has seen the debut of around 15 new gin distilleries, and the provenance of Yorkshire rhubarb is crucial.

In Yorkshire, rhubarb is incorporated into all types of sweet and savoury dishes, from pies to cheese Credit: Mike MacEacheran. Our conversation returned to eating, as it so often does in Yorkshire. Carthy reminisced about the dishes his family used to eat while he was growing up: rhubarb crumble, rhubarb pie, straight-from-the-fridge spears dipped in the sugar bowl.

But as we chatted, my mind wandered back to the sacred space of that forcing shed in the heart of the Rhubarb Triangle. The sense of improbability it provoked was unforgettable — just like the green and pink colours of the rhubarb itself, captured in all their end-of-day, candle-lit dreaminess. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.

The English vegetable picked by candlelight. Share using Email. By Mike MacEacheran 25th April Forced rhubarb — a vegetable deprived of sunlight for extra sweetness — has been eaten in Yorkshire since the 19th Century. Now the culinary treasure is having a renaissance.

This is the moment of reckoning. Rhubarb is in our blood. But it has a lower yield than later varieties such as Queen Victoria. Find out more on this subject here. The petioles contain ideal levels of oxalic acid, which helps to cleanse and detoxify the body, and high concentrations of polyphenols - special molecules in plants with powerful antioxidant properties. It also boasts a lower acidity than the outdoor crop. The plant, which originates from Siberia, was previously used as a medicine and its use has been traced back to B.

Oldroyd Hulme's father finished harvesting outdoor rhubarb in August. Now, because of milder weather, the family are harvesting throughout October. Forced rhubarb begins life with two to three years in the open fields. This is so the plant can build up its root system and stores of energy, which it will have to entirely rely upon when moved into the forcing sheds. Up to 15, roots are packed into each shed. The growers then simulate the arrival of spring.

The sheds are heated, for example. Sprinklers are also used. Light is excluded from the sheds, so growers pick by candlelight. Small extra corner lights are also used nowadays due to health and safety.

The rhubarb is taken back to the pack house for grading once harvested. After four weeks the root is exhausted and as it is unsuitable for further cropping it is composted to add organic matter to the fields. The product is typically sold in 6. The picture below from Hick shows vintage tickets from back in the day. This ingredient is irresistible for chefs - brightening up any plate. At Quo Vadis in London, chef patron Jeremy Lee serves the ingredient with mackerel, beetroot, horseradish and blood orange.

He chops the rhubarb into 1 cm cubes then covers in a boiling pickling liquor made with cider vinegar, sugar, salt and spices — peppercorns, cloves and some ginger.