Forced Rhubarb is Ready!

My forced Rhubarb is ready – hooray! How do I know? Well as you can see the forcing has been a success and the forcing pot works a treat. Each of the crowns has sprouted and the leaves are nearly to the top of the forcing pot.

Percy Thrower says to remove the forcing pot now and harvest the Rhubarb because if I leave it on any longer I might exhaust the plant. I can’t force the plant again for two years as it needs time to recover so I’m hoping this harvest is worth it!

14 Comments on “Forced Rhubarb is Ready!

  1. I just realised that forced Rhubarb is roughly the same colour as my wardrobe in the 80s. The only thing missing is the Airwalk logo :)

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  3. I am sooooooo jealous. Mine’s under a pot and is about a month or so behind yours. If only I had a nice forcer like yours…….

  4. Beautiful! I’ll be picking my un-forced rhubarb in a week or two. Are you making a pie?

  5. I’m unable to force mine yet, as they’re only young plants, but I’m going to take a few stems for a crumble this year.

  6. What beautiful colours, almost worth doing for that alone!
    Does it taste sweeter? I’ve never forced rhubarb so would be interested to know if it tastes different.

  7. I think three years is a bit of an old wives’ tale. I have two plants on the plot and force alternate years only harvesting the forced shoots from the covered ‘un then leaving it. As long as they are well-fed (hungry beasts rhubarb) I’ve never had a problem.

  8. Mine’s competing with yours for height mtp!

    (but being in Edinburgh I had to uproot it and bring it indoors to get a comparable result! Pics on blog if you don’t believe me)

  9. We made Jamie Oliver’s ‘Speedy Rhubarb’ with it and we only had to put a third of the sugar in. It was even edible raw! And kind of tasted more ‘rhubarby’ than normal Rhubarb, if that makes sense.

  10. Wow – what a great result! Must have a look under my forcer tomorrow if it stops raining long enough here in Wales. There were some encouraging signs when I looked last weekend so fingers crossed for rhubarb crumble tomorrow!