It's bean a bumper summer for greens

According to experts, festive sprouts will not be in short supply while other greens such as cabbage and cauliflower are already flourishing in the soggy weather. Allotment holders in the Black Country and Staffordshire pick-your-own farmers have been kept busy with the rain boosting growth of certain crops, and spring sunshine helping others to pollinate.

While some fruit such as strawberries have rotted in the rain, other produce which grows above ground such as plums and members of the brassica family of plants, which include cabbages, cauliflowers and sprouts, have benefited.

Runner beans are also in plentiful supply and towering bunches of plants are a common sight at plots in the region.

Graham Walker, 61-year-old secretary of Barnford Park Allotments in Oldbury, said: "With anything that's a brassica or a green then the rain does them good.

"Runner beans are also doing well and there is a glut of them.

"The greens are thriving. I grow them all through the year. The sprouts are in there now growing for the winter and they are tall now so there will plenty of them for the Christmas dinner tables.

"It's not been that bad a year at all. We could do with a bit of sunshine now for the greenhouses but it has not been a drastic year."

John Shobbrook's plot at the Black Horse Allotments in Wednesbury has also flourished with green vegetables during the summer.

Mr Shobbrook, chairman of the Wednesbury Old Park Road site, said: "The cabbages are brilliant this year as the weather is wonderful for them because they don't depend on light.

"Generally it's been a good season because it's just been cool and steady."

Richard Simkin, owner of Essington Fruit Farm in Bognop Road, near Wolverhampton, has seen a poor return on strawberries but is already enjoying record numbers of plums.

"The cauliflowers and cabbages are looking good and we have these pretty much constantly from the middle of June to the middle of winter," he said.