Rhubarbing around in West Yorkshire
Yesterday I went to Oldroyd’s Rhubarb farm in Carlton, West Yorkshire with Chris and Jay to record the noise of it growing. That’s right – rhubarb makes a noise when force grown in warm, dark sheds due to the speed at which it is ‘forced’ to grow. I first heard about this here on the BBC news website a while ago, and we had been in contact with Oldroyd’s since the start of last year about going to record the rhubarb in their nursery sheds. This forced rhubarb is apparently a lot sweeter than outdoor rhubarb, and Oldroyd’s were keen to show us around their farm [although we forgot to ask if we could sample any of their crop].
We took along some condenser mics to capture the ambience of the sheds, as well as contact mics to record the creaking and the popping of the rhubarb stems. We got a lot of decent sounds that now need editing in preparation for some rhubarb inspired composition. I also need to clean the mud off my laptop and microphone stands!
Thanks to Janet and Neil for their understanding and letting us into their sheds with our microphones.
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