British asparagus is landing on supermarket shelves eight weeks earlier than usual after the mild winter weather quickened the arrival of this year’s first spears.
The traditional start to the season is 23 April but Waitrose will have homegrown asparagus in its shops from Saturday. It has been grown in polytunnels in Hampshire where the grower reported “unseasonably warm” January temperatures.
Asparagus requires a soil temperature of at least 10C to grow. However, if the conditions are right it can grow up to 10cm in one day. Sandy Booth, of New Forest Fruit, which is supplying Waitrose, said the mild conditions as well as their use of coir – coconut fibre, which warms up more quickly than soil – had led to the early harvest.
Chris Chinn, the chair of the British Asparagus Growers Association, said this first wave was “very early”. “The traditional asparagus season kicks off on the 23 April, St George’s Day, so it is obviously significantly earlier than that date.”
Air mile-laden products from countries such as Peru and Mexico – which are among the world’s biggest exporters of asparagus – have traditionally bolstered supermarket shelves because of the unpredictability of British weather.
The location of New Forest Fruit, on the sunny south coast, meant the crops “get a lot of sunshine”, Chinn explained. “They’re using some very early varieties and forcing the crop using plastic, so it’s a good use of the greenhouse effect you get inside a polytunnel.”
“Asparagus is very weather-dependent,” he continued. “This particular crop is grown in a protected environment but it will still be a bit variable depending on the sunlight receipts and ambient temperature. It’s been a mild winter without many frosts or snow on the ground.”
The climate crisis has led to rising temperatures around the world, with Nasa stating last month that global temperatures were now an average 1.1C (1.9F) above the average of the late 19th century.
Chinn, who is a partner at Britain’s largest asparagus growers, Cobrey Farms based in the Wye Valley, Herefordshire, said warmer winters were bringing crops on earlier, but added that better plant breeding and growing plants under cover were also extending the growing season. He pointed out, however, that shoppers would have to wait until April for supply to hit its stride. “You won’t see it everywhere in the shops until mid to late April,” he suggested. “It slightly depends on the weather conditions as we get towards that point in time. If we get warm weather it could be closer to mid-April, if it’s colder weather it’s going to be into May.”
Once regarded as a “posh” culinary delicacy, asparagus has become a more mainstream choice for consumers in recent years. This growth in demand has encouraged more farmers to get involved and there are now more than 100 domestic asparagus growers.
Lucy Darby-Smith, Waitrose’s vegetable buyer, said shoppers wanted to buy British so it was good news that the British asparagus – which costs £3.50 for a 200g bundle – had arrived earlier than usual. “It’s a clear sign that spring is on its way and we’re certainly looking forward to the warmer weather.”
