It has been a vintage year for strawberries and demand has been exceptional so there have been concerns that Wimbledon might miss out on supplies of this very English tradition.
Even Google announced that online searches for strawberries and strawberry plants are at a seven year high.
Laurence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruits, said: “There is absolutely no chance of a shortage at Wimbledon but this week is critical for the rest of the country.
If supermarkets do run out, consumers may have to switch to other fruits. “We do have a lot of raspberries,” Mr Olins said.
Sian Fromant, who runs a 25-acre farm in Wales that sells strawberry plants to gardeners, says demand from the capital has rocketed.
“We’ve been extremely busy recently, especially with orders from London and I think we are going to see a lot of varieties of strawberries run out early this year,” she said.
The early spring weather certainly confused a lot of fruit plants and many crops came earlier which meant that the Wimbledon strawberry season has been so unpredictable this year.
Strawberries grow in many countries all over the world from the cool damp climate of Scotland to the heat of sunny Spain .Eating home grown strawberries from your garden is one of my favourite experiences of an English summer.
Strawberries are tolerant of most soil types and with careful choice of variety and a greenhouse, fruit can be available for half the year. Bob Sherman, Garden Organic’s resident fruit expert, explains how.
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicgardening/gh_strwb.php
Sun, Jun 19, 2011
Climate Change, Grow your own, UK Climate Change