Force of Nature
Roy Hampson is in Wakefield for a unique festival
THE dark and cold month of February is not usually considered a time to find anything colourful or magical around the country. However, in normal years West Yorkshire has its annual tasty surprise in store, as the city of Wakefield holds its Rhubarb Festival.
Hosted by “Dame Ruby Rhubarb”, the three-day event usually celebrates the city’s love affair with the famed pink vegetable and centres on a market comprised of more than 60 chalets selling a wide range of rhubarbrelated food and drink.
Wakefield is in the heart of the Rhubarb Triangle – an area of nine square miles stretching from Wakefield to Leeds and renowned for producing the finest forced rhubarb for hundreds of years. It’s so good that Yorkshire forced rhubarb has
Protected Designation of Origin status, alongside other famous delicacies such as Parma ham and champagne, meaning only growers in this area can use the name.
It was in the 1870s that a small group of farmers put the city on the map with their rhubarb. During that decade, two trains left for Covent Garden every day carrying the vegetable, such was demand.
As the plant is a native of Siberia, it likes the cold and rain, as well as the West Yorkshire soil which is rich in nitrogen. Cuttings are taken from mature plants then, when strong enough, are planted in fields and allowed to mature. The repeated frost exposure toughens the roots. From Bonfire Night onwards in their second year, these now heavy roots are lifted from the great outdoors and replanted in heated forcing sheds to grow in pitch black conditions.
From then on growth is at a rapid pace – so fast that it’s possible to hear the popping sound as the stalks are pushed out of the bud. When ready to harvest, the rhubarb undergoes a fairy-tale hand-picking process by candlelight. Producers often plant a range of different varieties to stagger the crop, with the season running from mid January to March.
It all sounds romantic but it’s not an easy method of growing, ensuring that the slender, straight stems of the plant grow quickly upwards in search of non-existent light. The stems do not turn green or toughen due to the absence of photosynthesis, and this results in the crème de la crème of rhubarb which has a delicate texture and a sherbet flavour, much sought after by the catering industry and public alike. Outdoor rhubarb, in contrast, is coarser, more acidic and thicker stemmed.
Wakefield’s paved shopping precinct lies within the shadow of the city’s cathedral – the tallest in Yorkshire and fourth tallest in England thanks to its 247-feet-high spire. It’s an ideal place to stage the festival’s “Rhubarb Jam fringe entertainment” headed by Dame Ruby, which includes comedy, music and dance, plus rhubarb-inspired art installations!
Last year, artist Tony Hall recreated an imitation rhubarb shed filled with illuminated paper stems, and a simulation of the snap, crackle and pop of rhubarb-growing.
Visitors can also enjoy sweet aromas emitting from a nearby marquee where rhubarb-related tasting and cookery demonstrations take place. Expert chefs demonstrate the versatility of rhubarb, which is classed as a vegetable, not a fruit, and which can be boiled, stewed, roasted or baked into a favourite crumble. Stalls brimming over with freshly pulled rhubarb stems tart up the town by adding a splash of colour, and so many creative rhubarb-based products are on hand, including jam, puddings, cupcakes . . . even wine!
A visit to Jonathan Westwood’s family-run farm includes a tour of one of his forcing sheds. The farm lies within the Rhubarb Triangle at Thorp, only a few miles from the centre of Wakefield, and Westwood’s has been a supplier to the Yorkshire-based chain Morrisons for over 20 years.
Jonathan’s family has been forcing rhubarb for much longer than that, though. They have been farming on the site since the 1880s. They still use the very same sheds that date back to 1900. I ask Jonathan why have they had such success.
“The loam soil on a clay base is perfect for the plants, or crowns, as they are known, and is packed with nutrients. Also, in Victorian times, when rhubarb’s popularity was at its peak, the local coal mines provided cheap fuel for heating the sheds, producing ample soot.
“Really soot is sulphur, which the plant simply loves, and that’s why it grew so well around here. The triangle also sits in a frost pocket, and the cold happens to be the crowns’ main
requirement to develop successfully.
“The other components are water and nitrogen, all of which are found in abundance in the area. The proximity of the Pennines provides an ample water supply and nitrogen comes courtesy of the waste shoddy wool from nearby mills which we spread on the ground as a fertiliser.”
Jonathan also describes the romantic-sounding harvest when groups of pickers arrive, each carrying a single candle held aloft on a castiron stake. It turns out this has a practical purpose. “The candlelight is not to help the rhubarb grow; it’s for the pickers to see,” he says. “Electric light spoils the colour of the leaves.”
As Jonathan points out, during late Victorian times, when rhubarb was at its peak in popularity, there would have been 200 growers in the area producing hundreds of tons each week for home and abroad. During the first part of the 20th century the triangle covered 30 square miles, a much larger area than it does now, and produced 90% of the world’s forced rhubarb.
Success continued during World War II, when rhubarb was often the only “fruity” option available during food rationing. It lost favour shortly afterwards though, as we were exposed to more exotic fruits.
Currently there are only three big producers and eight smaller growers in Yorkshire, but though imitations are now produced elsewhere, especially in Holland, forced rhubarb remains synonymous with the region.
Although rhubarb itself wasn’t originally Yorkshire born and bred, farmers insist that the unusual process of growing the vegetable was discovered right here. The story goes that a gardener threw an old crown on to a muck pile only to surprise the stable boy, who discovered bright pink stems pushing through the muck a week or two later.
Luckily he had the sense to realise the potential and gather the stems to eat. Well, where there’s muck, there’s brass!
In any other year, Wakefield’s annual Rhubarb Festival takes place towards the end of February, check at experiencewakefield.co.uk. If you want details of farm tours around the Rhubarb Triangle, then visit yorkshirerhubarb.co.uk.