UK Crop Weather Keeps Randomizing; After Cold, Wet 2024, Markets Glutted W. Tomatoes, Eggplants, Berries Weeks Early
A glut of early strawberries, aubergines and tomatoes has hit Britain with the dry, warm weather eliminating the usual “hungry gap”, growers say. It has been a sunny, very dry spring, with the warmest start to May on record and temperatures predicted to reach up to 30C at the earliest point on record, forecasters have said. Nick Haigh, a grower at the Community Farm south of Bristol, said many of their Mediterranean vegetables had come weeks earlier than expected.
“It feels like it’s the middle of May already,” he said, “We have loads and loads of crops right now, tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, peppers, they are all ready two or three weeks early. We are crazy busy already. We are feeling the push right now.” Usually this time of year is known as the “hungry gap”, when winter vegetables have run out and consumers are waiting for the summer crops to arrive. However, the sunny, dry weather has eliminated this, he said.
“A few months ago we thought it would be the worst hungry gap ever, now we are saying there is not going to be a hungry gap. We got really poor harvests last year – we didn’t get very much squash, for example – so we didn’t have the storage vegetables that would usually get us through the hungry gap. Last year was awful, it was completely wet.”
The extremes of weather, made more acute by climate breakdown, are catching farmers by surprise as they never know whether they will have to deal with floods or drought. “You just can’t predict the climate any more. What might be your predictable dates you might plant things by just don’t work any more,” he said. “We are having to try to be more adaptable to different techniques based on the climate. It’s keeping us on our toes for sure. Some rain would be great, though, we are looking at the weather waiting for the rain.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/02/glut-of-early-fruit-and-veg-hits-uk-as-climate-change-closes-hungry-gap