North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>]

Clifford, - Thank you for taking the time to tell us the UK rhubarb story!!
Jim Nottke

-----Original Message-----
>From: Clifford Cain - uk yahoo <cc_syorks@yahoo.co.uk>
>Sent: Dec 14, 2009 11:50 AM
>To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: [NAFEX] Re - Rhubarb
>
>As the current thread is under way - just thought I would interject with 
>a little background on Rhubarb growing here in the UK and how our 
>warming climate is impacting upon its commercial production.
>I am in the county (equivalent of State in USA) of Yorkshire where the 
>Rhubarb Triangle can be found.  This is an area between the cities of 
>Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield where rhubarb was widely grown 
>commercially, producing forced rhubarb since Victorian times when the 
>medicinal benefits of Rhubarb became prominent. Forced rhubarb lacks the 
>acidity of green rhubarb, green referring to being grown outside rather 
>than the colour of the stalk in this instance. A collection of over120 
>cultivars was established at Harlow Carr Gardens and formed the national 
>collection.  Since the RHS took over the gardens they moved the 
>collection south to Wisley which is a shame because the reason Yorkshire 
>grows so much rhubarb is due to the winter cold.  The crowns would be 
>grown in the fields and fertilised with shoddy, waste from the wool 
>mills , a traditional industry now as good as extinct in the area, which 
>would provide nitrogen.  Coal mining was another traditional industry 
>from which slag was used as a fertiliser.  The soils of the area are 
>clay based and receive around 300mm winter rain.


Jim Nottke
Pfafftown, NC