MAKE ROOM FOR RHUBARB
A plant sometimes overlooked is rhubarb. Here professional nurseryman and fruit expert David Patch raises the profile of this delicious crop
Check out our YouTube Kitchen Garden channel to see how to force rhubarb and how to split and replant a rhubarb clump that has too olds got
The National Collection of rhubarb is at the National Trust’s Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire
I think rhubarb is one of the most overlooked plants in the allotment or kitchen garden. It has a reputation for being indestructible, and so often gets sidelined to a shady or ‘problem’ area of the garden. Year in, year out we expect it to produce a crop, with just the occasional mulch of manure if it’s lucky, but happily spend time and money cossetting the latest ‘must-have’ kiwi fruit, Pluot (apricot/plum cross) or doughnut peach. Maybe familiarity has bred contempt, but for me the rich history of the rhubarb makes it well worth further investigation, and thanks to a new wave of British chefs there are a huge number of ways to use this versatile (and delicious) ingredient.