# Tickled pink: rhubarb growers see explosion in demand for Yorkshire crop

It takes a while for the eyes to adjust to the darkness inside the shed. Slowly, the shapes of hundreds of pale stalks emerge from the gloom like an alien species, visible only by the glow cast by a handful of candles.

This candlelit ritual is the harvest of  forced rhubarb, being carried out by growers Robert and Paula Tomlinson.



Robert Tomlinson comes from a long line of rhubarb growers, with his plants featured on the menus of international chefs. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

The warmth inside the shed means forced rhubarb is harvested during the winter and early spring, and the absence of light leads to a substantial difference between the rhubarb grown in an allotment and this sweet, vivid pink vegetable.

“We cut out the photosynthesis. So there’s no chlorophyll in there and the sugar stays in the stick rather than going into the leaves,” says Robert.

Growing rhubarb in the dark prevents photosynthesis, meaning the sugar stays in the stick, rather than going into the leaves. Photograph: Charlotte Graham/Rex/Shutterstock

The word also seems to be getting out farther afield – Tomlinson Yorkshire forced rhubarb now features on menus across the globe, and demand is only increasing. “The old boys all those years ago would have never believed their rhubarb would be on menus from top chefs in New York and Paris,” he says.

“I still can’t believe it myself, to be fair.”

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