Rhubarb Afternoon Tea
Saturday 20 & Sunday 21 February 2027, 12, 1, 2 & 3pm
£44 / Members £40
Tickets available soonCelebrate Wakefield’s Rhubarb Festival with our annual rhubarb afternoon tea, served in The Hepworth Wakefield café across Saturday and Sunday.
Arrive to a glass of prosecco or our non-alcoholic homemade rhubarb soda, then settle in for a menu of finger sandwiches, savoury snacks and homemade sweet treats, finishing with a classic clotted cream scone.
Locally grown forced rhubarb runs through the whole menu, from the preserves to the cakes.
Three menus are available: main, vegetarian and vegan. The main and vegetarian menus can also be prepared gluten free. Please let us know which you’d like when booking.
If you have any other dietary requirements, please email carlfleischer@hepworthwakefield.org before booking.
Sample Main Menu
Mature Cheddar, sliced apple & rhubarb chutney sandwich
Roast chicken, aioli & tomato sandwich
Smoked salmon mousse cracker with pickled rhubarb & dill
Rare breed pork sausage roll with rhubarb purée
Candied rhubarb and custard blondie
Rhubarb and stem ginger amaretti
Citrus posset pot with rhubarb compote
Blood orange polenta cake with meringue and rhubarb jam
Fruit scone with clotted cream, Estate Dairy butter and pink rhubarb jam
Sample Vegetarian Menu
Mature cheddar, sliced apple & rhubarb chutney sandwich
Free range egg and cress sandwich
Cream cheese cracker with pickled rhubarb & dill
Beetroot and celeriac roll with rhubarb purée
Candied rhubarb and custard blondie
Rhubarb and stem ginger amaretti
Citrus posset pot with rhubarb compote
Blood orange polenta cake with meringue and rhubarb jam
Fruit scone with clotted cream, Estate Dairy butter and pink rhubarb jam
Sample Vegan Menu
Vietnamese summer roll
Vegan Cheddar, sliced apple & rhubarb chutney sandwich
Coronation chickpea wrap with pickled rhubarb
Avocado, chilli and lime cream cheese cracker
White chocolate & candied rhubarb blondie
Rhubarb and stem ginger linzer cookie
Citrus rice pudding pot with rhubarb compote
Blood orange cake with rhubarb icing
Fruit scone with vegan cream, dairy-free butter and pink rhubarb jam
What is forced rhubarb?
Forced rhubarb is grown in the dark. Roots spend two years in the open field, storing energy and taking the winter frosts that trigger them into growth. They’re then lifted and moved into heated forcing sheds, where the absence of light sends the plant hunting for it, the stalks shoot upward on stored sugars alone, growing so fast they creak and pop audibly in the dark.
The result is a stalk that’s tender, deep pink and far sweeter than field-grown rhubarb, cropped by candlelight to keep the daylight out.
Wakefield sits at the heart of the Rhubarb Triangle, the nine square miles between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell that once supplied most of the world’s forced rhubarb. Ours comes from Jason Cook in Stanley, a few minutes up the road.
