In The Vegetable Stall (1885, National Galleries Scotland) by William York Macgregor, one of the Glasgow Boys, the vivid rhubarb stands out against the dark, earthy vegetables, the wooden stand, and the baskets. It is now a classic image of local produce, a world away from washed, measured, calibrated, over-packaged supermarket fruit and vegetables.  

Rhubarb grown outdoors has a much longer season but isn't as pink and delicate as the early forced rhubarb from Yorkshire. It does have the advantage, however, of being extremely hardy, and quick and easy to grow in northern European countries, including Norway. This lovely spring painting is Rhubarb (1911-21) by Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928), who grew many varieties of rhubarb, and celebrated the landscape of Western Norway in his work. 

Now is the time to enjoy the short season of early, forced rhubarb from the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle, the area between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell where rhubarb is grown using methods perfected in the nineteenth century. It is cultivated in dark, heated sheds and picked by candlelight to prevent photosynthesis and in order to harvest beautifully sweet, pink stems with lemony-yellow leaves. 

It is cheering to know that political and protest banners are still being sewn and painted by hand today. Ed Hall is a well-known maker who has been creating banners for thirty years; this one was made for Unite South East Women. It is also possible to make your own  banner, guided by Alice Gabb who has been, "inspired by the incredibly rich history of peace campaigning, secret societies and social justice movements within the U.K" and who runs workshops.

Or, indeed, leading the union, as so many women do today. Frances O'Grady was until recently the general secretary of the TUC, the nurses are led by Pat Cullen, Christina McAnea is the general secretary of UNISON, the UK's biggest union, and Sharon Graham is the first woman to hold the position of general secretary of Unite. 

This National Federation of Women Workers banner (a replica of the 1914 original) s in the People's History Museum. The NFWW was formed in 1906 to campaign for the rights of low-paid women workers, like those included in the marvellous description of a protest march in No Surrender: "Textile workers from Lancashire and Yorkshire in their shawls and clogs...Welsh women from the pit's mouth; sweated tailoresses, doing Government work...at half men's pay; post office clerks, who had also experienced the bitter difference between justice as meted out to those with the vote and those without; chain-makers...hat-makers, bottle-makers, match-makers, jelly-makers, each bearing on a banner the emblem of their trade; on and on they came...the interminable miles and miles of women".

Several museums now collect protest materials, including the People's History Museum in Manchester which acquired this banner after it was discovered in a charity shop. Although many banners were designed by suffragette and artist Mary Lowndes, this was made by the Manchester-based banner-maker Thomas Brown & Sons. It appeared on the platform alongside Emmeline Pankhurst when she spoke on 19 July 1908 at a rally in Heaton Park, Manchester, to a crowd of 50,000 people, many of whom, like Ursula in The Call, no doubt looked 'rather fine' carrying banners of their own.