Raspberries and Rhubarb

The raspberries and rhubarb are growing great. As you can see the rhubarbs are monsters again this year. Pretty soon I’ll be picking it every day just to keep it under control

The raspberries have been staked and tied to the wires and look really health and tidy. They are starting to bud too, though I had hoped they would get a bit bigger before producing a crop.

Rhubarb in Bloom

The rhubarb has started its main growth spurt. They’ve got stems growing out from left, right and centre and getting really big. The onion seedlings are geting covered in some places by their giant leaves. Picking will have to be regular for a while to keep it under control! The rhubarbs have also tried to go to flower. A very strange sight, but my best instinct is to chop them off where ever they appear to keep them concentrating on the stems. Watch out for some rhubarb cooking experiments posted here soon!

There is Life!

Yes, there are signs of life! The rhubarb has started to show its new bright red shoots. Its really great to be able to see the rhubarb grow back from nothing like this. In winter it really is nothing more than small black piles of dead leaves, but this really is the star of our allotment. When this grows back to its full size it is an impressive sight for people passing by. The leaves are huge and the stems grow as thick as my arms and just as long, and on top of all that, it tastes amazing. Even the biggest and thickest of the stems is never woody or stringy and packed full of flavour. I made several different crumbles from it last year and found the best was when I added nothing more than sugar and crumble.

It is going to be great to chart its growth this year. So to start, here is the rhubarb as it is now, empty and maybe a little messy. Eventually you wont see the black sheeting for pink stems and leaves!