K wrote:
Mike Lyle writes

Yes, most of the UK growers are in Yorks. Passing Wakefield on the
M'way you see fields of it, which for some reason I always find
amusing. It isn't so much about climate or temp, as rhubarb is a cool
temperate crop -- they even grow it in the Faroes -- it really is
mainly about the darkness, so they get pure pink tender stems.

Isn't it also about earliness? Yes, you can grow outside it all over the
UK, but certainly Yorkshire it's more of an early summer crop than a
spring crop, and moving it earlier into spring hits that gap before the
cheap soft fruits arrive.

Yes, that must be at least as important as quality, as with any market
crop: I have fantasies of The Great Rhubarb Race, like the old tea and
wool clippers! "Eh, lad! Put thy back into it! I'll not 'ave me nose
wiped by yon Sidebottom like last year!"

I wonder if the crowns from the sheds are discarded afterwards, as with
forced rhubarb. I'd love to visit one of the sheds and try to hear the
buds breaking.

--
Mike.