Jerez, Spain

Part of this week has been spent near Jerez in Spain where some of our winter watercress is sourced from. The cold weather that is being experienced in the rest of Europe is also effecting this area.

Normally Jerez experience odd frosts at -1̊ C or -2̊ C but they have had a period of prolonged cold weather and a record breaking -5̊ C last weekend. This has resulted in slower growth than usual with the -5̊ C actually scorching the crop and in some areas making the whole crop unusable.

To minimise the effects of this, crop covers have been used (hail netting and fleece) but unfortunately, with the weather this cold, the covers have only helped on ‘warmer’ nights.

With more extreme weather becoming the ‘norm’, frost combating measures are being assessed for the future; These include;
• Fans (like wind turbines but smaller) to keep air moving
• Sprinklers to keep water in the air
• Thicker covers

France
Part of this week has been spent in the Perpignan area of France visiting a supplier there. They help us to further spread our risk by having production outside the Murcia area of Spain during the winter. They tend to be smaller farms than seen in the UK and Spain and have both outdoor and protected crop.

Normally, crop is grown outside in the autumn and spring, with protected crop being grown through the higher risk weather period. This gives good uniform crop and minimal foreign bodies, but can lead to leaves that are slightly less robust.

Another advantage is that delivery is normally 2 days (as opposed to 3 days from Spain) which can help if we need product at short notice. Most salad crops are grown, but endives and escaroles are concentrated on in line with the French palate.

Water

Happy New Year!!

Much of last week was spent in Spain visiting and auditing some of our growers. As always, the importance of good land and water resource remains very high on the growers’ agenda. Water, even in winter, is very important for agriculture and generally comes from two sources. Firstly, the water comes from boreholes (either on-farm or owned by the community) and secondly, from the Trasvase Tajo-Segura.

This is a series of rivers, channels and reservoirs that transport water from central Spain down into the Murcia and Valencia regions that was first planned in the 1930’s, but was finally built between 1966 and 1979.

The water comes from two main reservoirs and the transfer is managed by the State Government, who decides the amount transferred depending on the level of these reservoirs. If the water level is too low no water can be transferred due to demands by the local Tagus Basin.

This has become more of an issue in recent years as growth in agriculture and tourism means there is increased competition for the water. Some growers close to the sea are even looking at desalination plants to remove the salt from sea water.

Festive Season

With our biggest orders now despatched ready for the Christmas period, most staff are now getting ready for their breaks. Transport has been much easier this year, with temperatures around +12 degrees Celsius, a marked contrast with temperatures last year more like -12!

I am on holiday next week, so would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Look out for more blogs in 2012!

Cabbage

All our cabbage comes from one specialist grower in Cambridgeshire and is UK crop for 12 months of the year. Cabbage is sown between March and May and then from July onwards is harvested fresh as required. By September harvesting is ramped up with November being the busiest harvest month with everything in store by December, weather permitting.

Variety choice is important depending on colour, leaf structure, density and time of maturity. Most varieties are now hybrids, and under the correct conditions produce a very uniform crop. Crop is stored in wooden boxes at approximately 0.5 degrees Celsius and brought out of store and prepped throughout the year as required.

Internal issues can be a problem, especially towards the end of storage. This is managed by controlling aphids (can carry a virus) and ensuring good calcium uptake during key periods of growth.

Spain

Much of last week was spent in the Murcia region of south-east Spain visiting 3 of our main growers with one of our customers. On the whole, temperatures have finally reached more ‘normal’ levels after a very warm autumn.

Day-time temperatures remain higher than normal but cooler night temperatures have helped with leaf robustness and bolting issues have reduced significantly. Growers remain ahead of schedule in terms of harvesting, due to plantings maturing together, and lighter crops being harvested to minimise bolt risk, but this has come more in line over the last 3 weeks.

Crops in the main look very good with the younger harvested crop holding up well to some heavy rain 2 weeks ago. Growers, as usual, have planned to harvest their best crops for the Christmas period and are hoping for some increased sales as New Year resolutions kick in!

Radicchio

As with many crops, both here and in the rest of mainland Europe, radicchio has been affected by the unseasonably warm weather. This led to crop destined for November and December having to be harvested early due to bolting.

In turn, this has caused problems with crops that were originally destined for harvest later in the winter not having the characteristic deep red colour that our customers are used to. This is because winter varieties, such as Rubro, need to be subject to cold weather conditions to initiate the red colour. In warm weather, the heads retain a lot of their original white / green colour and yields drop dramatically as these leaves are stripped back to the redder heart.

This has affected UK crops more than Italian, so to overcome this short-term issue we have switched to wholly Italian supply – it now looks like UK crop has coloured significantly for supply next week.

Ready for winter

Although our main focus is salad leaf we do use a significant amount of other crops. Two of these are onions (both brown and red) and carrots. Onions are all harvested between July and September (weather permitting) and stored either in bulk or box stores. They are then cured with heat until dry.

Onions destined for long-term storage are then cooled to about 1 degrees Celsius to help with shelf life – the longer the onion is stored the higher the risk of internal growth which ultimately ends up in a green shoot protruding from the top of the onion – being kept at 1 degree obviously suppresses this.

Carrots are generally stored in the ground until needed, although some are harvested and stored in cold stores, similar to the onions. To minimise frost damage, crops left in the ground are covered by a thick blanket of straw. Last year, with early hard frosts many crops were not ‘strawed’ in time to beat the frost and caused some availability and quality issues.

This year, many growers started laying straw early, and on a larger area of crop than usual due to last year’s issues, but mild weather so far has deemed this an unnecessary expense. The costs are great, especially as straw yields have been generally low due to the dry year and they are competing with power stations that also use straw as fuel.

Spanish quality

We are now nearly on full Spanish supply; availability and quality of leaf is generally good but a hotter than average autumn has led to some bolting issues.

Bolting is mainly caused by temperature stress and in Spain it has been due to the heat. This puts the crop under stress (anything above 24˚C is detrimental) and causes the plant to think it is dying.

Its natural reaction to this is for the plant to try and reproduce before it dies and so the plant bolts. This is the start of the reproductive cycle and if left to its own devices the plant would push the bolting stem right through the lettuce head to form a stalk that will eventually form a flower and seeds.

Frost

Last week saw the first frosts in the UK – these were wide-spread but there severity varied a great deal. Early frosts normally do not cause any severe damage as long as the crop is not harvested until the frost has come out of the head.

The main crops affected were Iceberg and Romaine. With Iceberg it normally only gets one or two leaves into the head, (unless the frost is very hard) which are removed at harvest. Romaine can be affected more as the frost can get into the head more easily due to its’ upright nature.

In the North-West, damage seemed severe for a light frost and thoughts are that rain in the early hours, whilst the crop was still frosted, acted as though the crop was being handled. Thankfully, there have been no more frosts since, but continued frosts will cause delamination and cell breakdown meaning crop has to be written off.