A LOAD OF RHUBARB

Robert Tomlinson’s family have been growing rhubarb in Yorkshire for 140 years. He continues the family business into its fourth generation from the unique area of Yorkshire known as the Rhubarb Triangle. Rob describes the strong history here, what makes it so ideal for forcing rhubarb, and how the produce is loved both locally and globally.

We started forcing rhubarb here in Pudsey in the 1880’s, first by my great grandfather Robert, passed through my grandad Bernard, my dad David, and then me. They grew rhubarb as a summer crop before forcing came about, which as the story goes was discovered by accident. Down near London a worker dug a channel out for a drain and put the soil on top of some roots - when they filled it back in a few weeks later the rhubarb had started to grow. How true this is I’m not sure, but that’s the tale we’ve all been told!

My grandad built up the rhubarb side of the farm to 12 forcing sheds, producing hundreds of tonnes of rhubarb each winter. This all went to London on the rhubarb express train which left every day loaded with rhubarb from many growers - there used to be around 200 growers in the Leeds/Bradford/Wakefield area, which was nicknamed The Rhubarb Triangle.

Rhubarb is grown here in Yorkshire due to the climate and the woollen mills that used to be in Bradford. From the mills, we put waste wool called shoddy on the land, which is high in nutrients over a long period of time - as the roots are grown out they do well on it. Now, as many of the mills have gone, we have to rely more on manure.

The climate here in the shadow of the Pennines is the greatest place for the roots. At the end of summer, when the cold shorter days arrive, the roots go dormant and need a period of cold to turn the starch into sugar before they start to grow again. Further north it’s too cold and the land gets frozen, further south and it’s too mild.

A harvest comes at the end of two years of field growth. Then, in the forcing sheds we carefully pick the rhubarbthis is done in candlelight so that there’s no photosynthesis which stops chlorophyll, meaning there’s no sugar going into the leaf, it’s all in the stem. This creates the sweetest, brightest, highest quality rhubarb.

I remember helping in the sheds from being very little, when I could only just walk! But in the 1980’s the demand went into decline because imported fruits became easier to get hold of in the winter months - this caused most of the growers to give up as the price was below the cost of production. The sheds fell into disrepair and the land built on - my dad cut down to one shed but never gave up,

In the early 2000’s it started to gain a bit of momentum so we started to build up our stock of roots; we’re now back up to 4 sheds and have plans to rebuild another. The rhubarb we produce now is going all over the country to top hotels and Michelin star restaurants as well as shops around Leeds. It is with chefs within 24 hours of being picked. Unbelievably, it also goes out from this tiny part of Yorkshire across the world - to Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Zurich, and even as far New York USA!

Words: @rhubarbrobert