Veggie and fruit update.. with a little bit more!.. For periods of time it appears that Summer is with us…although as I write this the temperature is a bit chilly, the wind is fairly strong and I am in early Spring attire! At the farms the crops are starting to grow and as we have noted before plants like to stick to their timetable and do attempt to “catch up” growing quicker than usual and perhaps whooshing through some stages of their development. Generally UK crops are 3 weeks behind their “normal” schedule, which takes some catching up. This week we are experiencing a reduction in the range of UK vegetables, which is a bit disappointing given that last week we were blessed with an wonderful range of fabulous produce. We expect the range and volume of UK produce to increase significantly in 3 to 4 weeks, bring a corresponding decrease in price….and we need that as the cost of UK produce is very high at present.
Asparagus is still with us but not for long. Courgettes are starting to come through (and we have more of the small courgettes with flowers from one of our growers, who likes to keep the plants free from the ground level courgettes; hence this delight on offer to us!) Broad beans should be with us in a couple of weeks and a good crop is expected.
In the absence of a wide range of UK produce we look to Europe for their earlier developing produce. That plan isn’t working too well as celery, broccoli (calabrese), cabbages and peppers are all in short supply at the moment and as UK demand for imports grows…so does the price charged. Sadly the quality isn’t quite as good as we would expect either – no doubt a function of the limited supply (we saw the same with UK potatoes earlier this year which resulted in our decision to stop supplying the maincrops). So why the limited supply from Europe? A combination of extremes of weather in some regions of Spain, an anticipation from exporters to the UK that our demand would be falling now as our own crops come on stream and lastly a strengthening of the German market for imports. The organic market in Germany isn’t a common media subject in the UK, so let’s rectify that immediately! Whilst demand for organic food is increasing cultivation by German farmers is reducing. Despite government and EU encouragement for organic growing, some states have withdrawn the funding which augmented this encouragement and farmers are switching to other farming methods which require less labour (which is relatively expensive in Germany). To digress a little further the reduction in organic farmland runs counter to EU generally where increases of 50% have been experienced over the past few years. France saw an increase of 50% and Poland 500%! Austria has the highest percentage of farmland certified as organic in Europe with the Czech Republic in 2nd place. Outside the EU increases in organic farming are seen in many countries including Australia, Peru, Brazil, China and India.
Finally, back closer to home – on the fruit front peaches, nectarines and melons are arriving from Europe but apples and citrus are in short supply. We’ll switch to South Africa for citrus…maybe supply problems here too..and await the UK apple season which is expected to be…GOOD!! Always end on a positive note, my Mum says. And we did!!