Farmer says blueberry crop is 'one of the best' despite rainy weather
A farmer has said his blueberry crops are "one of the best" he's ever grown – despite the cold and wet summer weather.
Essington Farm has been selling its fresh fruit and vegetables since 1978, with sweetcorn, runner beans, strawberries and its "famous" sprouts amongst the produce grown on site.
And this year, business partner and farmer Richard Simkin said his blueberry crop is thriving, despite the heavy rainfall that has been seen across the region in recent weeks.
Richard, who is the fourth generation of his family to have worked on the farm, said: "All this cool, wet weather that we've had over the past month has watered the blueberries and they've grown big and juicy.
"These past two or three days have been sort of warm and sunny and suddenly we've got a terrific crop of nice, juicy, ripe blueberries – they're possibly one of the best crops we've ever had.
"Sometimes, if it's hot and dry they don't grow very big but, this year, they've had a nice combination of sunshine and rain and it's all come together – they are looking very good at the minute."
Essington Farm – which dates back to 1892 – sells its fresh fruit and vegetables in its farm shop, as well as offering customers a chance to hand-select their produce as part of a "pick your own" service.
Despite the success of this year's blueberry crop, farmer Richard said the wet conditions has presented a "bit of a problem" for farming.
The 72-year-old added: "It hasn't been ideal weather to come and pick anything really but of course strawberries are grown under cover so people can come and pick strawberries even if it's raining.
"The farmers that have faired the worst this summer are the cereal farmers, but thankfully we don't harvest cereals so that hasn't been a problem for us."
The farm also has an award-winning butchers shop on site, having been crowned Butcher’s Shop of the Year for the Midlands and East of England in May.
