How to force your rhubarb for an earlier, sweeter crop

Keeping rhubarb out of light for a few weeks will allow rhubarb to grow faster and harvest faster. Claire Wilson

To Claire Wilson

I just finished one of the few winter jobs on my allotment. Prepare a patch of rhubarb and set one of the plants to force. This means covering it with a large container so that the stem seeks light and grows faster.

If you have the space, I highly recommend having a few easy-to-grow rhubarb. I pay little attention to it, but I get big harvests every spring when I don’t have a lot of homegrown produce. Technically, rhubarb stems are vegetables because they are the stems of the leaves of the plant…