Small-Scale Smallholding, A Tiny Farm In A Big Garden
If you'd like to get an earlier crop of rhubarb now is a good time to force it. Choose an established rhubarb in your garden and simply cover the crown with a forcing jar, upturned dustbin or very large pot. Doing this creates a dark and warm environment inside, forcing the stems into premature growth. Restricted light creates baby pink stalks which taste less tart and … Continue reading How to Force Rhubarb
The weather has been settled and sunny for many days now, a pleasant respite from the rain allowing many hours of work at the allotment to prepare the ground for sowing and planting. Rich made a couple of raised beds using the wood we recently recycled, our plot now pretty much finished with regards to the design and … Continue reading Back on the Plot
As I froze my socks off in the garden today I thought about tucking into warm rhubarb crumble. This is how the Timperley Early rhubarb patch (which no longer belongs to us) will be looking around about now. I miss it. And the rhubarb crumbles I would be making and enjoying around about now..... To cheer me up we started the ball rolling for our new patch today and … Continue reading Missing the Rhubarb Patch
In January I forced my crown of Timperley Early rhubarb, using my rather stylish forcing jar. Stems are ready to harvest once the leaves reach the top of the forcer. The sweet aroma of rhubarb filled the air as I pulled pink tender stems from the ground early this morning. A bowl of warm rhubarb crumble … Continue reading Forced Rhubarb is Ready
Last year I treated myself to a terracotta rhubarb forcer for my birthday, using the money I'd been given as a gift. The forcing jar spent much of the year nestled alongside the rhubarb looking rather stylish, eventually disappearing behind a jungle of rhubarb leaves. My rhubarb crown is just over 3 years old so I'm going to start forcing … Continue reading Forcing Rhubarb
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 … Continue reading Pulling Rhubarb
