With the Met Office on track to record one of the warmest summers since 1884, this year’s hot spell through May, June and July and lack of rainfall has sped up the arrival of autumn, bringing crops to maturity far sooner than usual.*
Waitrose reports already seeing the early signs of autumn, with a speedy arable harvest at the Leckford Farm Estate, with some of the worst effects of the dry, hot growing season mitigated by farming practices that increase the organic matter in the soil to produce resilient, high quality produce in these conditions.
The annual arable harvest has taken place two weeks earlier than usual, with 1,600 tonnes produced, and the crop now in the grain store and kept at the right moisture and temperature to retain its quality. The following produce already gathered includes:
Wheat for Leckford flour, loaves & baguettes
Wheat for Wildfarmed produce
Oilseed rape for coldpressed rapeseed oil, oats & malting barley
Thomas Adami, farming operations manager at Leckford Farm, comments: “The drought conditions meant that the plants were stressed, and in reaction to this they raced through their growth stages to produce their seed before they senesce, hence the earlier harvest.”
“As we are increasing the organic matter content of our soils through our farming practices, (cover crops, integrating livestock, minimising disturbance etc) we are seeing that our soils have a higher water holding capacity which helps our resilience to drought extremes. An increase in 1% soil organic matter leads to an increase of 168,000L extra water holding per hectare available to the crops.”
“We’re getting ready to do it all again next year. We’re baling and picking up the straw for our cattle, and spreading manure ahead of the new crops, which helps us reduce our reliance on artificial nutrient sources. We have sown our cover crops to protect the soils from the elements over the winter, this helps keep living roots in the soil and is all part of our drive to increase organic matter and soil health.” says Tom.
At the same time, we’re also seeing customer demand for classic autumn fruits like blackberries and apples soar in popularity this summer.
Compared to this time last year, sales for:
Colin Pratt, Fruit Farm Manager at Leckford Farm comments, “We’re anticipating an earlier harvest—approximately 7-10 days ahead of average—due to the long, hot summer. We also expect this to be a higher ‘Brix’ year, the measurement used to establish how much sugar is in fruits, indicating a healthier and more nutrient-dense crop.”
Jessica Street, Apple Buyer at Waitrose comments, “We’ve got an early start to the apple season this year, all thanks to ideal spring conditions and a warm temperature throughout the growing season accelerating the ripening process for many fruits, like apples. The good news is, there’s absolutely no compromise on quality or taste, so you can expect to see British apples proving very popular late August and early September.”
