Harvesting forced rhubarb

Yesterday I picked my first rhubarb of the year. This is the first time I’ve tried forcing rhubarb and after sampling some yesterday evening, it’ll be something I’ll be doing every year. It was extremely tender and sweet.

Forcing rhubarb is easy to do. All you need is a large pot, dustbin or you can even get Rhubarb Forcing Pots. I personally used an old dustbin. I simply covered the crown about 6 weeks ago, excluding all light and popped a couple of bricks over the dustbin to stop it blowing away.

I’ll harvest a couple of more stems over the next couple of weeks and then remove the dustbin to let the plant recover over the summer.