The Rhubarb Triangle: Inside the heart of Wakefield's beloved pink vegetable as Rhubarb Festival returns this weekend

The Rhubarb Triangle covers a nine square mile area of West Yorkshire, with the three corners of the triangle roughly equating to Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield, and is where forced rhubarb is primarily grown.

The process of forcing rhubarb was discovered in Chelsea in 1817, when some roots were covered with manure over winter and it was noticed new tender shoots appearing which were tastier than anything grown before.

Soon, the success in the south inspired the Whitcliffe family of Leeds to begin the first mass market commercial growing of rhubarb in 1877, erecting special sheds to grow rhubarb out of season in special nitrogen rich soils found in the region.

The rhubarb plants spend two years out in the fields without being harvested.

While in the fields the plants store energy from the sun in their roots as carbohydrates.

The roots are then subjected to frost before being moved into sheds in November where they are kept in complete darkness.

From January to March, the pink forced rhubarb is then picked by hand, by candlelight, so that the delicate stems are not turned green and hard by photosynthesis.

The rhubarb industry continued to thrive within West Yorkshire with the ‘triangle’ once producing 90 per cent of the world’s forced rhubarb prior to World War Two.

Technically a vegetable, but eaten as a fruit, rhubarb was one of the few options available during rationing.

The success of the rhubarb industry in Yorkshire meant a whole transport industry set up around it – with special trains leaving nightly to ship large valuable cargoes of rhubarb down to the old Covent Garden Market.

Despite declining in popularity over the last century, in 2010 the triangle received a protected status and has enjoyed a revival in popularity since.

E Oldroyd & Sons Ltd, are located in the heart of the Rhubarb Triangle, in Wakefield, and continue to grow and harvest hundreds of rhubarb each year.

They also have five generations of experience in Yorkshire forced rhubarb production.

Director Janet Oldroyd-Hulme has become known as the ‘high preistess of rhubarb’ and works alongside her husband and two sons to produce some of Yorkshire’s highest quality rhubarb.

She said: "It's a three-year period to get the crop that we do and we've got to keep propagating – it’s a continual process.

"So not only are we busy harvesting rhubarb, in three weeks time, we'll be emptying some sheds of the roots that are in there and refilling them again.”

Oldroyd’s farm first became a tourist attraction in 1997, and still offer tours to visitors.

The Rhubarb Triangle became so popular that, eventually, a whole festival was created in 1999.

Wakefield’s claim over the pink vegetable alongside Oldroyd’s tours inspired the town to host the annual Rhubarb Festival as the harvest ends.

It recognises the success of the triangle and its impact within the district.

The festival, which has now become a staple within the community, has also helped in increasing the love for and demand of the vegetable, with hundreds heading to Wakefield to enjoy and celebrate the rhubarb industry.

Wakefield’s Rhubarb Festival will return this weekend, from February 20 to February 22.