The UK's sunniest spring yields strawberries that are especially sweet

 

DARTFORD: British strawberry producers say this year's record-breaking spring sunlight and high temperatures have produced an extremely huge and tasty harvest.

According to James Miller of WB Chambers Farms, the combination of long days of sunshine and chilly nights has provided "perfect" conditions for strawberry cultivation.

Miller said that the dry and nice weather increased insect pollination, which improved the quality and form of the fruit.

"They're bigger and sweeter this year than we've seen in previous years," said Miller, commercial director of one of the nation's largest berry growers.

At one farm near Dartford in Kent, southeast England, rows of strawberry bushes drooped under the weight of shining red fruit sheltered in insulating polytunnels.

As farmhands carefully worked their way down the semi-circular white tunnels, punnets were packed with ripe strawberries, some the size of little fists.

The weather has resulted in "super berry size and super flavour," according to Nick Marston, head of British Berry Growers, which represents the majority of the country's soft fruit farms.

"I've been in the berry industry for 30 years and this is one of the best springs I've ever seen, in terms of both the weather and also the crop," Marston told the news organization AFP.

'Better Place'
The Met Office confirmed this week that Britain had the hottest spring in terms of average temperatures since records began in 1884.

It was also England's second-sunniest and driest spring in almost a century, despite its notoriously moist environment.

According to the Met Office, Southeast England got just 30%-50% of its typical spring rainfall, prompting concerns of a drought among farmers.

Droughts, heatwaves, and other extreme weather phenomena are becoming increasingly severe, prolonged, and frequent as a result of human-caused climate change.

To conserve water, the WB Chambers farm near Dartford employs drip irrigation, which includes water gently trickling to plant roots via a regulated conduit.

"We've reduced our water usage for growing strawberries quite significantly," Miller shared with AFP. "So I hope we're in a better place than others."

According to Marston, British growers have already sold roughly 21,600 tons of strawberries, 5,000 tonnes more than at this time last year, when the UK endured a gloomy spring.

This is due in part to warmer weather producing a crop sooner than normal, with plump and luscious strawberries hitting the stores in April rather than May.

However, when the sun shines, demand for British summer favorites such as strawberries and cream rises, according to Miller.

"The sun is our biggest salesman in the UK," Miller added. "When the sun picks up, then the demand picks up."