How are the veggies coming along?

[AHPP]

1 minute ago, Peasgood said:

I don't know but I expect we are pretty self sufficient on rhubarb. There will be some forced stuff from Holland and most likely outdoor from Poland. Our trade into the jam industry stopped when Polish rhubarb undercut us to the point it wasn't viable, from memory we were getting £120/ton and that was only just worth doing. 

 

That's incredible. With a bit of approximation, you're saying five to ten thousand acres is all the land needed to keep seventy million people in rhubarb. 

[Peasgood]

I doubt there is anything like that amount grown any more.

Probably 69,999,000 of those people don't eat rhubarb anyway and wouldn't know what it was or how to use it. Times have changed and when the old biddies died out so did the demand.

If you see rhubarb these days it is 3 sticks in a plastic bag, usually only 5 bags on the supermarket shelf and all with yellow stickers on.

[Peasgood]

UK rhubarb figures 2022

510 ha (1260 acres) grown

15,000 tons

Worth £22 million

Don't know imports figures as not shown, just bulked together under "other"

 

[AHPP]

1 minute ago, Peasgood said:

UK rhubarb figures 2022

510 ha (1260 acres) grown

15,000 tons

Worth £22 million

Don't know imports figures as not shown, just bulked together under "other"

 

 

Where do you get figures on this sort of thing?

[Peasgood]

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/653fce9846532b000d67f57a/hort-dataset-08june23i.xlsx

[sime42]

On 05/05/2024 at 14:18, david lawrence said:

Spoke to Dutch lady today. They eat rhubarb as a vegetable not a ‘fruit’ boiled down into a compote then eaten with meat and another veg 

 

My Mrs has an Iranian friend. She likes to eat rhubarb as a raw stick, dipped in salt. The norm there apparently.

 

 

[farmer rod]

Im a bit disappointed with the carrots sown a few weeks ago, none have come up so re-drilled today. When I looked at the packet to see if the seed was too old, turns out they are not due to germinate till next

 

 

 

Edited May 8 by farmer rod

[GarethM]

On 06/05/2024 at 14:15, Peasgood said:

UK rhubarb figures 2022

510 ha (1260 acres) grown

15,000 tons

Worth £22 million

Don't know imports figures as not shown, just bulked together under "other"

 

Isn't nearly all rhubarb that's UK grown all done in the rhubarb triangle as it's called ?.

 

Grown in the dark from what I remember too.

[Peasgood]

I think the Yorkshire men would have you believe that but we shipped thousands of sets all over the country.

A lot was grown in the Evesham area and an increasing amount in East Anglia too.

There are two sorts of rhubarb sold, one is the very pink stuff which is "forced" in dark sheds and the other is called garden rhubarb, just means grown outside. There is probably more garden than forced.

[GarethM]

4 minutes ago, Peasgood said:

I think the Yorkshire men would have you believe that but we shipped thousands of sets all over the country.

A lot was grown in the Evesham area and an increasing amount in East Anglia too.

There are two sorts of rhubarb sold, one is the very pink stuff which is "forced" in dark sheds and the other is called garden rhubarb, just means grown outside. There is probably more garden than forced.

Haha, nothing would surprise me about those cunning Yorkshire men.