How to save Britain's forced rhubarb – and its farmers – from ruin Closed restaurants have left producers more vulnerable than ever – but there are clever ways to put this year's harvest to delicious use Credit: Haarala Hamilton "You can hear it creaking as it grows, if you are deathly quiet," says farmer Robert Tomlinson. He is describing forced rhubarb, the long, luminously pink vegetable which starts life outside, where it grows for two years with reckless abandon, but is then cut back and replanted in heated sheds for winter to continue developing in complete darkness. A period of confinement that feels strikingly similar to our current lockdown conditions.