E Oldroyd & Sons’ Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb

Posted on 24 January 2023

We’re very excited to say we’ve received the first arrival of the beautiful ✨Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb✨ from E Oldroyd & Sons.

Harvest of forced rhubarb at Oldroyd’s Ashfield Home Farm in the Rhubarb Triangle in Carlton, West Yorkshire by Romanian seasonal labourer Vaduva Jonut. The Rhubarb Triangle is a 9-square-mile triangle in West Yorkshire, England between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell famous for producing early forced rhubarb. Rhubarb is a native of Siberia and thrives in the wet cold winters in Yorkshire. West Yorkshire once produced 90% of the world’s winter-forced rhubarb from the forcing sheds that were common across the fields there. Photo and caption courtesy:
 Gabriel Szabo/Guzelian (http://www.eoldroyd.co.uk)

How does it work? 🤔
The roots are left out in the fields for 2 years, so they are exposed to frost, toughening the roots. After this, the rhubarb is lifted and placed in forcing sheds for 6–9 weeks until the beautiful sticks are ready. Once ready, the beautiful scene of candlelight picking begins! 

Forcing it too quickly causes a loss of flavour, so this truly is a work of art! It’s incredible to see such an incredible process still in operation since the nineteenth century!

Available now