Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.

[Pete smith]

Just watched historical railway prog which featured the express trains from rhubarb triangle to London. What did they put the rhubarb in the send it down??? Not a joke. 
And what would they use to send the treacle from Taplow treacle mines?

Pete

[Steamport Southport]

They were normally accompanied by one of these.

 

[doilum]

There are much more knowledgeable people amongst the Wakefield MRC ( look for the thread on their Stanley layout). From my understanding the rhubarb would be packed in boxes not dissimilar to ammunition crates or banana boxes. These would have been taken in vans probably as express freight owing to the perishable nature of the crop.

[sir douglas]

@enginelane

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/115878-wrms-60-years-exhibition-layout-stanley/&tab=comments#comment-2465587

 

 

[Roy Langridge]

23 hours ago, 21C1 said:

British rhubarb in the Rhubarb Triangle in Yorkshire is grown in forcing sheds in the dark. It is said you can hear the creaking as it grows. 

 

There was a programme on tele once where the presenter was whispering into the microphone and was nearly being drowned out by the sound of the rhubarb - absolutely incredible.

Roy

[Compound2632]

If you're into lightweight detective fiction, try The Body on the Train by Frances Brody. It would be a spoiler to say whose the body was but the train is the up rhubarb special, arrived at Kings Cross in the early hours of Saturday 2 March 1929. I assume Brody has done some research, the train is said to start from Leeds Central, with a stop at Ardsley (where the body is presumed to have been put on board). The train ran nightly during the season, from Christmas to Easter. The rhubarb was packed in "nice light boxes". Later on in the book there's a description of the rhubarb forcing sheds.

[doilum]

This year's new growth is just coming through!!

[Pete smith]

My 97 year old mother told me last week that her Yorkshire cousin grew rhubarb. Dad used to inspect the crop with a 3 candle candelabra as he thought he was better bred than the other local growers!!! Why has she waited that long to tell me?

She also told me that my great grandfather drove full size ploughing engines for 20 years till he put one in a ditch. He would leave to do the thrashing then ploughing and when he came home mother had found another baby under the gooseberry bush!!!, He had no idea where it came from - true. There were 6 boys and  6 girls and my grandparents came from families of 12 as well. How many do you have? They didn’t have any hobbies.

Now how about the treacle?

Thanks for your replies. Pete

[Hroth]

Lightweight wooden containers were often used.

 

Don't know if anyone remembers the "traditional" punnets that strawberries used to be supplied in, made from interwoven thin strips of wood?  In the days before cardboard boxes and plastic crates, a lot of "soft" fruit and veg would be shipped in containers made in a similar way.

 

Bulkier produce would be shipped in small "crates" made from slightly thicker wood, lined with paper, rather like the way tangerines are sold at Christmas, but a bit larger, depending on the produce.

 

As for the "custard van" above, I often include one or two in a banana van train... 

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Hroth

[doilum]

34 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Lightweight wooden containers were often used.

 

Don't know if anyone remembers the "traditional" punnets that strawberries used to be supplied in, made from interwoven thin strips of wood?  In the days before cardboard boxes and plastic crates, a lot of "soft" fruit and veg would be shipped in containers made in a similar way.

 

Bulkier produce would be shipped in small "crates" made from slightly thicker wood, lined with paper, rather like the way tangerines are sold at Christmas, but a bit larger, depending on the produce.

 

As for the "custard van" above, I often include one or two in a banana van train... 

 

And orange boxes and potato barrels all intended to be single use. Cauliflower and cabbage came in sturdy returnable crates.

[Compound2632]

34 minutes ago, doilum said:

potato barrels ... single use. 

 

Please say more on this subject. Googling "potato barrel" turns up containers in which to grow potatoes whereas I infer you speak of barrels for the transport of the tubers. (Why has an image of the pre-Covid Northern Line sprung to mind?)

Edited February 13, 2021 by Compound2632

[doilum]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Please say more on this subject. Googling "potato barrel" turns up containers in which to grow potatoes whereas I infer you speak of barrels for the transport of the tubers. (Why has an image of the pre-Covid Northern Line sprung to mind?)

Some of the small Jersey New potatoes were delivered in plywood barrels / drums about 18" in diameter and perhaps 24 or 30" tall. As a small child our weekly green groceries and wet fish were delivered on a Friday usually in an orange box ( great kindling) but occasionally in one of these barrels. At one point I had one lashed to a redundant pushchair to create my own Hunslet quarry engine. On the end the barrel was repurposed to store the aforementioned kindling.

They were still in seasonal use in the early seventies when I worked for a fruit and veg trader.

Edited February 13, 2021 by doilum

[Fat Controller]

2 hours ago, doilum said:

And orange boxes and potato barrels all intended to be single use. Cauliflower and cabbage came in sturdy returnable crates.

We still have a bookcase that incorporates wood repurposed from orange boxes; it was built by my grandfather in the 1930s.

I suspect that barrels would only have been used for the very first Earlies from Cornwall, Jersey and Pembrokeshire; the skins on these are very fragile. I've not seen them in barrels for a long  while in the UK, but I have seen them in Parisian green-grocers within the last decade. Later crops would have been carried in hessian sacks (also returnable).

[doilum]

9 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

We still have a bookcase that incorporates wood repurposed from orange boxes; it was built by my grandfather in the 1930s.

I suspect that barrels would only have been used for the very first Earlies from Cornwall, Jersey and Pembrokeshire; the skins on these are very fragile. I've not seen them in barrels for a long  while in the UK, but I have seen them in Parisian green-grocers within the last decade. Later crops would have been carried in hessian sacks (also returnable).

The ones in sacks came packed in peat.

[Hroth]

And then again, tea came in wooden teachests*.

 

* I've still got a few in the attic, I'll have a look when I get the opportunity to see if they're plywood or thin wood panels.

[Fat Controller]

17 minutes ago, Hroth said:

And then again, tea came in wooden teachests*.

 

* I've still got a few in the attic, I'll have a look when I get the opportunity to see if they're plywood or thin wood panels.

It still does, at least to the merchants and packers.

[5050]

My Dad grew rhubarb in the garden using upturned old rusty buckets to force it.  Until we moved to Wakey 50 years I had no idea it was grown commercially.

[doilum]

As a child I don't remember it being sold in shops. It was just one of those things that grew in gardens and allotments. We don't force ours. It just grows and will be harvested as needed between Easter and October.

[Mark Saunders]

2 hours ago, doilum said:

As a child I don't remember it being sold in shops. It was just one of those things that grew in gardens and allotments. We don't force ours. It just grows and will be harvested as needed between Easter and October.

I remember it being sold in greengrocers in the 70’s and it always looked rather thin and spindly compared to home grown!

[doilum]

52 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

I remember it being sold in greengrocers in the 70’s and it always looked rather thin and spindly compared to home grown!

Possibly the result of forcing?