Mild winter leads to bumper crop of veg

Bumper crops of vegetables are being harvested in Staffordshire and the West Midlands weeks earlier than usual because of the mild winter.

Cabbages and purple-sprouting broccoli are among the crops to have grown unseasonably early amid average temperatures of around 14C (57.2F), normally expected in spring.

The lack of frost this winter has also led to a good harvest of sprouts, compared to a year ago, when workers were desperately trying to harvest them from under a blanket of snow before Christmas.

John Davis, chairman of the North Walsall Local Management Association which takes care of some of the allotments in the town, said he had noticed the spring cabbages starting to grow already.

The 64-year-old from Bloxwich said: "The spring cabbage don't usually start maturing until February, and then they split open in March or April. They are usually dormant at this time of year.

"The weather has brought it on really fast.

"It's a bit weird. I've been an allotment holder for over 40 years and I've never seen this before."

And Mr Davis is not the only one to notice how the weather is affecting produce.

Richard Simkin, who runs Essington Fruit Farm in Bognop Road, said the farm's yield of sprouts had increased due to the mild winter.

He added that workers were already starting to pick purple-sprouting broccoli, which is a month earlier than normal.

"We would normally start picking purple-sprouting broccoli in February but we have already starting picking that now," he said.

"Last year it was totally wiped out, it looked like it had been gone over with a flame-thrower, which was the first year ever that it has been killed by frost.

"Savoy cabbages and sprouts have just grown that bit better, the quality is better because there is no frost damage.

"It's so much more pleasant because this time last year it was absolute murder trying to get anything out of the field."