Shropshire farmers counting cost of late asparagus crop

She is used to the weather dictating when the crop is ready for picking. But this year a combination of a balmy winter and distinctly chilly spring has left her and her fellow workers frustrated.

The asparagus season usually runs from April 23 to June 21 – but Quatt farmer Caroline said everything is currently a month behind schedule and creating a knock-on effect for shops and restaurants who use the crop.

She said: "Asparagus really likes a cold winter and a mild spring – but this year the absolute opposite has happened."

The vegetable only grows when soil temperatures reach eight degrees.

Caroline of Lodge Farm in Quatt, near Albrighton, has got 17 workers helping to cut the crops.

She says it has been a frustrating few weeks waiting for the asparagus to appear.

"Cutting has got off to a late start," she said. "It is due to the mild winter. In March the crops that were coming up were hit by frost.

"As a result we are about a month behind where we should be.

"Asparagus really likes a cold winter and a mild spring, not the other way round.

"That is the worst possible thing for the plant.

"We have lost two or three weeks of cutting and we can't get that back.

"Since then we've had three days of cutting and only now can we see the spears starting to come into full production. So the crops are still waking up.

"We had some asparagus under cover and have been cutting those since the beginning of April, but it is the later varieties that we have outdoor that are just starting to fill out.

"Outdoor cutting should start on May 5 and 6 so this year it is very late."

In 2015, when the weather was near perfect, the farm started cutting on March 21.

Lodge Farm has been producing asparagus for more than 30 years, but growing has increased over the past decade as the family business started distributing to farm shops across the region and supermarket chain Waitrose. Crop varieties grown there include purple or crimson salad asparagus.

Nick Furnival, of Hungers Heath Farm shop and tea room in Ashley, near Market Drayton, said it was the second time in three decades that the crops had arrived so late.

"We have lost about 12 days of potential harvest and sales, but we won't know the costs just yet. On the positive side there has been very good interest in asparagus since we opened our shop a few days ago," Mr Furnival added.

His farm has only been able to offer supplies for sale since the start of this week.

Up until three weeks ago soil temperatures were too cool to allow the crops to grow.

The asparagus trade was worth £22 million to growers in Britain in 2012.