Every January to March, food bloggers, Instagrammers and magazines alike feverishly await the eruption of rhubarb onto supermarket shelves. The glorious Pepto Bismol pink of rhubarb compotes, jams, jellies and pies comes as a welcome antidote to the relentless greens, dirty browns, and insipid whites that define the vegetable world, the colour palette extending only as far as orange (unless you count beetroot, which is usually dirty and brown on the outside anyway). The rhubarb’s path to the glitzy world of Instafeeds, magazine shoots, and blog posts wasn’t, however, an easy one.

Incarcerated in a dark and lonely place, ostracise d by jealous peers, and finally belle of the ball, you might just mistake rhubarb’s story for Cinderella’s. Continue…