RHUBARB!!!

Ah Rhubarb!! Funny weed like vegetable...and I think it IS rather than a fruit but DO correct me if I'm wrong.
It starts to poke its head up this time of year and even though it does this every year we still get excited by it....and how quickly we forget how SICK we are of eating it, freezing it and turning it into jam.
If only all vegetable growing was thus easy.

THIS year I have rung the changes by trying my hand at forcing some to try the more delicate flavour of the paler stalks.
To start with I had two plants under buckets and freshly mucked out straw thrown over the top for heat and to block out all the light.
It quickly became apparent that this wasn't an ideal set up though. The straw encroached on the other rhubarb plants and the buckets where too small.
As luck would have it I was trying to think of something to do with my old council bought plastic compost bin.
This useless lump of moulded plastic was no good for making compost and in despair of 2 years of brown sludge and whole pieces of vegetable matter, I have gone back to the good old muck heap properly made and situated in the veggie garden.

But I digress....

AhA, I think..a perfect match! So compost bin with lid has gone over the top of the plants and for good measure I have heaped some straw around the sides to guarantee total darkness (poor little roooobarbs!!).
It is DEGREES warmer in there and the stalks are already stretching up to find their way out of the dark and are @ 4 times as far along as their outdoor brothers.
So we'll see what the next couple of weeks bring.




The forcing bin.




The outside rhubarb.