Cold snap fears for asparagus season

A SUDDEN unexpected spell of cold weather could spell disaster for Yorkshire's short but highly lucrative asparagus season.

Over the past couple of weeks the bunches of green and purple spears have been appearing in shops across the county, but a drop in temperatures is threatening to stunt the growth of this most seasonal of British vegetables.

The way asparagus grows makes it very unusual. The final spurt of growth generally takes place in the day before the spears are picked.

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Maggie Archer, a grower based near Dishforth, said that during warm weather she might expect to harvest a crop every day, occasionally twice a day in really hot weather.

However, the below average temperatures and particularly cold nights have worked against this year's crops.

The ideal conditions are temperatures of about 16 degrees celsius.

The peak for the asparagus growers' season is the end of May, so the weather over the next two weeks will be critical.

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Mrs Archer, who farms with her husband at Abinesfarm, said: "We're just keeping ahead of orders at the moment.

"It all depends on what happens at night, if we have a frost you lose the next day's pickings."

For the shops which sell the vegetable any interruption to supply could be bad news.

Andrew Loftus, who runs Weetons in Harrogate, said: "It's fantastically important because not only is it a great tasting and distinctive product, it heralds the arrival of spring.

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"It can double our fresh fruit and vegetable takings when it is at the peak of its season. It's expensive, but because it's in season for such a short time, and tastes so good, people don't mind paying that."

Mr Loftus gets his supplies from Colin Morrell at Knaresborough who grows about 20 acres of the crop. This year has probably been the worst for a fair few years," he said.

"I've never known a frost in May."

For other growers the problems with the crop can be very expensive.

Ronda and Richard Morritt have 12 acres at Sand Hutton, near Stamford Bridge, one of the largest asparagus growing operations in Yorkshire, employing almost a dozen workers to help with the harvest.

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"Normally, we'd be cutting up to a thousand bundles a day, yesterday we got 186," Mrs Morritt said.

"Normally you can go every day and it's grown three or four inches in a day, but not this year.

"We are lucky to get anything and are losing all of the soil temperature overnight, so it much be at least lunchtime before it gets warm enough for it to start growing again, then it's got a couple of hours and then it stops."

Growers are also denied the option of extending the season, which lasts from St George's Day on April 23, through to June 24.

Mrs Archer said: "If you do, you rob next year's crop. That's because you have to let it build up into fern, which then dies back and puts goodness back into it."

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