It’s worth sticking around
AGOOD walking stick comes close to a black labrador and a waxed jacket as the essential countryside rambling companion. And though there’s a staggering range of shapes and sizes available from stick manufacturers’ stands at rural craft fairs, agricultural shows and smart gents’ outfitters, it’s great fun to grow your own. There are two easy ways. One is to grow the Jersey walking-stick cabbage, which is also known as Jersey walking-stick kale. This is a monster brassica, up to 6ft tall and, though you could eat the young leaves, it is mainly grown for its strong, straight stem that turns woodier with age.
Seeds are available from several of the big mail order seed companies including Thompson and Morgan and, if you sow them in spring, you should have suitable stems to harvest late the same autumn, otherwise leave them in the ground for another season to grow them bigger.
In late autumn, when the stems are at their woodiest, pull the plants up and let them dry out slowly in a nice airy shed then trim the best stem to length and make sure to leave a good “knob” at the top to form a handle.
WHEN it has had time to dry out completely and stop shrinking, treat it to a few of coats of yacht varnish to act as a preservative and for a smart finish.
The other method is to cultivate your stick to order on a living hazel bush. You might find there’s a stout, straight branch of about the right length growing on a hazel bush in your hedge or, if you fancy a knobbly stick, look for a suitable piece in a contorted hazel. If so, it just needs cutting and trimming. But if not, train your own. Look for a straight, young shoot but leave it attached to its parent plant. Trim off any sideshoots then bend the end over to create the handle and tie it firmly in place so it “sets” as it grows. After another season it should be thick enough to cut to length.
For a fancier handle, tie the stick into a knot while it is thin and flexible. And if you want a stick with a barley-sugar twist, wind it around a pole and fix it in place to set into shape over the next season’s growth. Tie a coloured label to your shoot so that nobody prunes it out by mistake.
When you finally cut your stick, leave it to dry then trim it to the right length and varnish it. The finishing touch is to make a ferrule to reinforce the tip. So find a short piece of copper pipe roughly the right diameter, the sort sold for water pipe in hardware shops or a small plumber’s off-cut, and use a hacksaw to cut a 1in length.
Avoid whittling the tip of the stick to fit over the end as it won’t stay in place long; instead heat the ring up and force it on over the tip; as it cools down it will contract to fit. If it wears down it’s easy to fit another and quicker than growing a new stick.
Like labradors and ancient waxed jackets, a good stick becomes an old friend that you’ll want to keep.
ENJOY RHUBARB ALL YEAR LONG