My Timperley Early rhubarb is ready for pulling, yay! As its name suggests it is one of the earliest to crop and known to be great for forcing too. My crown is now three years old, huge and healthy. I left it well alone in its first year, no harvesting at all which can weaken a young crown, then only lightly harvesting for a few weeks in its second year. Now it’s big and strong I can harvest sticks as and when I need them – right up until early summer.
To harvest sticks of rhubarb, grab a nice thick stem at the base and give it a gentle tug whilst moving/rocking it from side to side, it should pull away from the base easily. If it doesn’t then it’s not ready yet.
I will be pulling my first sticks of rhubarb this weekend for making that first delicious crumble of the year. I highly recommend this variety for a super early crop.
Mmmm, I love rhubarb but I’m the only one around here who does! I’ve never grown it but yours looks so good I’m going to look up how to grow it. I can wait three years for home-grown rhubarb fool ;) x
Your rhubarb looks very robust :) Ours is tootling along and I’m happy to let it. I dislike it, although I do have a nice recipe using it with beef. Steve is the Rhubarb eater.
Just planted one so am delighted to see it recommended. Apart from being tasty, they are such lovely plants.
Oh lovely rhubarb – hope you have some delicious custard on hand.
I am so looking forward to pulling the first stems from my rhubarb – even though it feels like cheating as it was a give-away from a fellow plot holder!
Earlier in the week my plot neighbour gave me a handful of stems from his early variety. Nice though it was I really want to try mine which needs a few more weeks yet! xx