Rhubarb Week

Rhubarb Week Banner, Jonathan Thompson Photography

A Week of Rhubarb at Wilde Orchard

It’s pretty busy of late around here. I’ve been shooting for restaurants, Wilde Orchard, The Vegetarian Society and a fews other commercial jobs. Splitting my time between working on location and at our home studio in Chester. Recently we celebrated with a week of rhubarb over at Wilde Orchard, five days of rhubarb deliciousness. But, before you can get cooking you need the rhubarb, forced rhubarb this time of year, and it seemed a great reason to head out to take a look how it’s grown.

Rhubarb Week Banner, Jonathan Thompson Photography

I contacted E.Oldroyd and Sons, a well know Yorkshire rhubarb producer. They were kind enough to allow me access to their farm to see and photograph their production of forced rhubarb. There’s an interesting and very long history of producing rhubarb in this area of Yorkshire, apparently dating back to 2700BC and earlier. You can read all about the history of rhubarb on the Oldroyd and Sons website.

 

 

I was shown to the shed that was being harvested that morning. Now farms and photography gear don’t really go hand in hand, so most of my gear stayed in the car for this first bit. It was very black when I entered the shed, even though there were some lights on, half way down the shed where the farmhands were picking the crop. It took a minuet for my eyes to adjust to the dim light, just as well because due to the humid nature of the barns, my camera gear had fogged up and I couldn’t shoot until it had acclimatised. I slipped and squelched along a narrow path running down the centre of the barn. The periodic raw of the gas heater at the far end of the barn was the loudest sound. Gentle murmurs came from the farmhands as they picked the rhubarb, their feet in the mud and the stalks snapping, all seemed muffled by the humid air and the gloom.

Forced Rhubarb Shed, Cheshire Food Photographer

Farming Forced Rhubarb, Cheshire Food Photographer

Harvesting Forced Rhubarb by UK Food Photographer, Jonathan Thompson

A trusty tripod and long exposures are the name of the game in here. Seems like I’m always working in the dark these days…. That’s not a feed line, so stop it 😉

After slithering back out of the darkness of the growing shed, I cleaned the mud from my gear and headed over to the production area. Here they prep the rhubarb for supermarkets. Cutting off the heads and any root that’s still on the rhubarb sticks. I picked up a big box of the beautiful red and golden crop to bring home for the Wilde Orchard Rhubarb Week.

Five Days Of Rhubarb

In celebration of the seasons, over at Wilde Orchard, we decided to do a week of rhubarb dishes. Something different, not the usual rhubarb crumble with custard, we wanted to push the boat out, just a little bit. To properly say thank you to the producers on this brilliant island of the UK.

For all of the recipes, to accompany the dishes featured here, are over on Wilde Orchard, simply follow the link in the post.

Rhubarb Week Day One

Rhubarb Week, Rhubarb Chestnut Friands

We kicked off the week with Rhubarb Chestnut Friands. A delicious little number which didn’t stick around for long. It’s amazing how many cuppa’s you can have when these beauties are hanging out in the studio.

Rhubarb Week 1, Rhubarb Chestnut Friands

 

Rhubarb Week Day Two

Rhubarb Week Day 2

 

Day two of Rhubarb Week at Wilde Orchard was a tasty way to jazz up your mornings porridge. Rhubarb Almond Milk Porridge is the way to go. Personally I’m not a huge fan of porridge but this had me looking for seconds.

Rhubarb Week Day Two, Rhubarb Almond Milk Porridge

 

This kind of dish certainly doesn’t blow it’s own trumpet easily. You still need to show off it’s best side, wether it’s a photo or it’s served to you. Your eyes are so’n’so’s for making judgment calls before it’s been given a chance. This is why restaurants spend so much time and money on great chefs, decor, plates and dishes. That’s also why we served your porridge in a nice bowl. One which complements the colours of the dish, drizzled with richly yummy rhubarb compote.

Rhubarb Week Day Two, Rhubarb Almond Milk Porridge

 

Rhubarb Week Day 3

Rhubarb Week Day Three, Cheshire Food Photography, UK food photographer

 

Rhubarb Custard Danish is for day 3 of Rhubarb Week. This fresh forced rhubarb is really something special. It’s so nice to work with beautiful fresh produce, grown a mere couple of hours drive away.

For certain dishes at Wilde Orchard, some in-between steps are beneficial to the readers. Not everyone has advanced skills in the kitchen but they’d like to grow their talents. They go to sites like Wilde Orchard to gain inspiration, knowledge and courage. Courage to try something new, to grow, to achieve and feel incredible, despite the outcome.

Rhubarb Week Day 3, Rhubarb Custard Danish. UK Food Photographer

 

Just like a group shot but with pastries. The smells wafting around the studio when it’s a pastry day are too much for me to resist. This is the fast food I’m interested in shooting, moving in tight to pick up the detail and folds of the pastry, makes it that more tempting, right?

Rhubarb Week, Rhubarb Custard Danish. UK Food Photographer

 

Rhubarb Week Day 4

Rhubarb Week Day 4. Cheshire Food Photographer. UK Food Photographer

 

By this time in the week, we’re really getting the rhythm of the rhubarb. Just about everyone else does rhubarb crumble or rhubarb and custard. Not us. Now don’t get me wrong, both are fabulous if they’re made with love and care. If you want to be the best you’d better be different from the rest. You’d be astonished how many recipes there are for using rhubarb. They even make beer from it, which I didn’t realises until recently. Why wouldn’t you though? Seems like a great idea although I’ve yet to try rhubarb beer.Rhubarb Week Day 4. Cheshire Food Photographer. UK Food Photographer

 

Enter Rhubarb Meringue Tarts. Once again there’s a step by step guide to making these little sweethearts over on Wilde Orchard as well as the full recipe. Keeping things simple not to distract from the little Rhubarb Tarts themselves. I used window light for this shoot, it’s about F5 at 1/2 second if you care about such things. Shot with a Canon 85 1.2 L lens hooked up to a macro extension tube which I’ve mentioned I use a few times before.

Again I like to capture some of the textures, the ridges of the lightly toasted, soft meringue. Makes your mouth water thinking of biting into one. Better keep them away from me because one is never enough.

Rhubarb Week Day 4. Rhubarb Meringue Tarts

 

The Final, Day 5 of Rhubarb Week

Rhubarb Week Day 5. UK food photographer, Cheshire food photography

We decided to finish up with a celebration for our week of rhubarb. What better way than with rhubarb schnapps. Since we’d never created, shot and wrote a full themed week of posts,we thought that needs a wee celebration, schnapps was the way to go.

Rhubarb Week Day 5. Rhubarb Schnapps, UK food photographer

 

There we are, finishing the week with a beautiful boozy rhubarb treat. Rhubarb Ginger Schnapps. I’m not much of a drinker, in fact I’ve barely touched a drop for the last two years. Not for any specific reason or cause, it’s never been a big part of me. Anything that prevents me getting up early to be welcomed by the best part of the day, isn’t worth it in my book. There’s always been a magic to watching the world, stretch, rub the sleep from her eyes and welcome you to a brand new day.

Rhubarb Week Day 5, Rhubarb Ginger Schnapps

 

Cheers!

That’s about all from rhubarb week. Please either follow the links from this post to the various recipes on Wilde Orchard or pop over to say hello. There’s a wealth of deliciousness and quite the party going on.

Any questions you may have, please leave a comment below. It’s always nice to here I’m not just talking to myself. I’ll leave you with a final image from Rhubarb Week. I hope you’ve enjoyed the brisk run by fruiting of what I get up to each week.

Rhubarb Week. Rhubarb Ginger Schnapps. UK Food Photographer

 

PS… It’s Friday, so have an incredible weekend and I hope I’ll see you back here soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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One Comment on “Rhubarb Week”

  1. Beautifully written Mr T. and gorgeous photos. Thanks a bunch for them. And no, you are not just talking to yourself. xx

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