Off the heels of the Dufferin Farm Tour, we were asked to tell this unique story for Lennox Farm who manage to grow Rhubarb successfully throughout the winter.
Full video transcript:
My Grandfather started growing rhubarb in the 1920s and eventually into the 1940s, there was 47 growers in southern Ontario. Today we’re down to us… we’re the only one left. I’m Bill French and we’re in the Township of Melanchthon in Dufferin County we’re in the packing house right now where we grow rhubarb in the building behind us. We have rootstock that we’ve saved for generations. We grow our own roots in the field for two or three years. We do not harvest in the field because we’re trying to build strength into the plant. The second or third fall we bring the roots out of the field with that old potato digger. We put them on a wagon and bring them into the buildings. We plant beds and leave it dormant or leave it cold. By having the lights off, it keeps the color very red and the stock very small. The leaf is not developed because of no sunlight, whereas if we turn the lights on, the stock would become greener because the chlorophyll in the leaf would start to develop… greener and larger. When you’re cooking with it you can cut the sugar in half, so that’s why it’s a specialty crop because people like the like the flavor of it. The fact that it’s tender. It’s not stringy at all. In the early 20s I used to get a job at a factory for the winter because we had nothing to do on the farm for three months and after about the 4th year I said I’ve had enough of this… I’m getting sick of working in a factory. I’d rather work for myself. So I asked my father about forcing rhubarb. We had rhubarb in the field that was young at the right age, 2 years old. So he went out and showed me how to do it and carried on from there.