I mentioned in my recent pork post that I had some rhubarb in the freezer from the local festival so I figured it was time to chat about that a bit more.

The Wakefield Rhubarb Festival was introduced in 1999, phwoar it makes me feel old, and has stuck around since. It is not as niche or out there are you might first think as Wakefield is part of The Rhubarb Triangle; A nine square mile patch that succeeds in producing early forced rhubarb for the vegetables very short season.

I remember going when I was younger but it was at a time when I didn’t have my own money to spend so it didn’t really seem like a fantastic experience (although I enjoyed the liquorice festival at the same time a lot more). But having moved back to Wakefield at the end of last year, after telling people for years about this festival, I figured I simply had to go along and I dragged my rhubarb disliking mum with me (sorry mum!).

As well as all the stalls they had a food trail of participating cafes, live entertainment, cooking demonstrations and other fun side activities going on. Some of them looked interesting but the times they were at I didn’t want to stick around for particularly.

There were a huge variety of stalls there and of course not everything was rhubarb related. As you can see there were numerous cheese stalls there, which isn’t a problem for me as I love cheese and any chance to mix up the fridge supply a little with different types and local brands, but I was disappointed none of them were selling a rhubarb infused one. Think Wensleydale style with rhubarb in. Mmm mmm. The chip shop curry sauce flavoured cheddar was particularly delicious melted over some fresh chips but I also popped it onto garlic gread at one point and that was yummy too.

I also got some rhubarb and champagne fudge bites and whilst the packaging is incredibly cute I found the taste and texture of these to be a bit weird. All I could taste was the champagne and it was a smooth texture whilst also being a bit chalky after that initial chomp into it. I think I would have much preferred a rhubarb and vanilla traditional textured fudge to sort of replicate rhubarb and custard.

Then of course there was a stall just selling rhubarb from the thin sticks like the ones I grabbed to the bigger more traditional sticks and oh boy were they lengthy. This one made me chuckle because it was obviously incredibly busy and they only had one card machine and the person wanting to use it before me was incredibly old and had to get her phone out to check her card PIN number. The rhubarb was fantastic and I had some of it fresh and popped some of it in the freezer (maybe I should make a pie or crumble with what’s left). I just wish, given I went there early in the day and it was already busy, they should have taken a small profit hit to hire a second card machine for the weekend.

It still wasn’t anything truly impressive but it was a good day and I will almost certainly drag myself back there again next year. If you want to find out more you can visit the official festival page here.

Are you a fan of rhubarb? Is there anything you do to incorporate it into recipes?