price of rhubarb

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Mo
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price of rhubarb

Post by Mo »

I've just picked 5lb of rhubarb to sell at our dance club's charity book stall tonight.
Of course I never buy it so I've no idea what to suggest for price ('a donation', probably). Any ideas?

Does anyone know how much you should pick? It seems to grow thick and tangled; if you dont pick it the stems go limp and the leaves yellow, but I expect there's a limit to keep the root healthy.
Even the root we forced and I thought was dead has come back with a tangle of thin stems and big leaves.
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Mo
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Post by Mo »

My word, you lot are slow!
I asked the same q on Mudcat, the folkmusic forum and got 2 answers while I was having my tea - £1/lb on Gainsbourough market or £1.99 /400g on special offer at Sainsburys. I knew markets were better value.

I didn't ask them about picking it though.
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Richard
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Post by Richard »

Hi Mo,

I really don't know.

We have some Rhubarb, the very late one and only enough for ourselves really.

I tend to see it as not so much 'the product', but how many meals it would make. So for enough to make a Rhubard Crumble for 4 people with some left over, 75p - £1 would be about right?

Most don't mind the little extra if 1. They know where it came from and 2. They're getting it off someone they know.

On veggies, I roughly know, but Fruits I'm not so good on.

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Mo
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Post by Mo »

Well, I divided it into 4, and put it next to the money tin, with the books and half dozen eggs, I didn't put a price on, but told the one who asked that I thought it was £1/lb in the market, there was £10 in the tin but I don't know how many books came and went.
£1 seems a lot for a few sticks of rhubarb, but then I still think you should be able to get a large loaf of bread for less than a shilling (it was 10d when i was a new wife/shopper).
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wendy
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Post by wendy »

How come my Rhubarb isn't big enough for me to eat it yet?
What are you lot doing that I am not :-D
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AnnaB
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Garden Fruit

Post by AnnaB »

Wendy
Surely you have a compost heap and your husband puts on it what he is physically able to!!! I am sure this improves all of our growing.
As for the price of rhubarb the local farm shop man said about 3 weeks ago the the wholesaler wanted £6 per kilo (English) so he didn't buy. He said the Dutch stuff was very cheap.
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Post by wendy »

I do have a compost heap. Why haven't I put some on it????
I have put it everywhere else !
I will do that tomorrow.
Thanks Anna.
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Mo
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Post by Mo »

I didn't put compost on mine, but its rampaging (memo, give it some). Did you overpull it last year Wendy?
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Post by wendy »

I didn't bloomin touch it. But the chickens absolutely annihilated it
:cry:
I feel I am lucky that it has regrown.
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Post by Emma »

If it helps at all to know, i planted some crowns earlier this year. Watered and feed them (almost) daily checked on them everytime i was in the garden, but nothing much was happening.

It was only when i popped out into the garden one lunch time i discoverd that our cat (well not really our cat, nextdoors, but a kind of mutual adoption happened) Poppy was using that particular corner of the veg plot as a sun lounger!
:roll: :-D
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Mo
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Post by Mo »

Jim has surrounded some of the new plant/seeds he's put in with a web of sticks and string, to keep rabbits off. Maybe it would work for cats (next time!)

The folkies on Mudcat had a long(53 post) discussion about rhubarb - price, culture, jokes, varieties, the 'Rhubarb Triangle, family history of rhubarb farming, childhood memories etc (that lot would talk about anything).
Someone there recommended pulling not more than a third at a time, mature stems, and when they stay as thin stalks its time to rest the root.
Sounds like sense, so I'll rest the root I forced, keep picking the other 2.
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Post by wendy »

I have had to surround mine with chicken wire.
How do you rest the root Mo?
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Post by Mo »

By not picking it, so the leaves can do their work, feeding it.

I've heard that you shouldn't pick after July (or is it shouldn't pick in July), because the poisonous oxalic acid in the leaves moves down into the tops of the stems.
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Post by wendy »

Thanks Mo
Learn something new every day.
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