Tickled pink: rhubarb growers see explosion in demand for Yorkshire crop

Despite wet weather hitting yields, supermarkets are reporting a doubling in rhubarb sales compared to last year

It takes a while for the eyes to adjust to the darkness inside the shed. Slowly, the shapes of hundreds of pale stalks emerge from the gloom like an alien species, visible only by the glow cast by a handful of candles.

This candlelit ritual is the harvest of Yorkshire forced rhubarb, being carried out by growers Robert and Paula Tomlinson.