Page 28 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2024

Miscellany of Topics
The following topics are based on articles in some NFU (National Farmers Union) magazines that I fished out of a bin! Nothing is safe with me around you would be surprised what can be found in skips and bins. The articles cover
a range of topics which I hope are of interest to you.
Future crops
With the effects of climate change it
is anticipated that we will get warmer summers and milder wetter winters (not sure about the warmer bit this year) thus allowing us to grow crops not considered hardy enough in the past. This summer up to July has been fairly cool in the south of the UK and was dryish in May and part of June but that could change in the future.
The crops mentioned below are all being grown on a farm in Essex, and I know there are other farms in Cornwall and Dorset growing similar crops. The first crop is figs, these have been grown in the UK (even in kitchen gardens in Scotland) since Roman times and can produce decent crops if the root system is restricted and are pruned correctly. The farm in Essex is growing 1 hectare of figs and a couple of cultivars are showing promise and crop annually. They are looking at planting on a large scale so it may not be too long before we see British grown figs in the supermarkets.
The same farm has planted a number
of cultivars of olive trees to grow trees to make olive oil (which has increased greatly in price recently for various reasons) and they are getting an encouraging level of fruit set. This could be a
useful crop to grow in the
UK as in Italy the olive trees
are being decimated by the
Xylella disease and Greece
and Spain have had recent
problems with olive tree
cropping hence the price
increases.
Olive trees are very long
Lemon tree
The farmer is hoping to produce olive oil and fresh eating olives
lived so are a good tree for helping to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. The farmer is hoping to produce olive oil and fresh eating olives. We have three olive trees about two meters tall where I work and they have not suffered any cold or frost damage in recent years,
so a possible future crop. They are fairly ornamental so will fit well into the garden with other Mediterranean planting like herbs.
The next crop is even more interesting is the Citrus Meyer lemon which outdoors has produce fruit during the past five years and have been good quality. Fruit should be in the stores this year or within the next couple of years. Some are being grown
Apricot 'Tomcot' Fan
Apricot Delicot 'Flavoricot'
Ficus carica fruit
28 Simply Vegetables