One of the hottest summers on record has brought harvest forward at Waitrose’s Leckford Estate, with crops gathered two weeks early and demand for autumn fruits already soaring.
The Met Office is on track to confirm one of the warmest seasons since 1884, with prolonged heat and little rainfall through May, June and July bringing crops to maturity at speed.
Despite the challenging conditions, Waitrose says new nature-friendly farming techniques have helped soils retain more water, protecting crop quality and resilience.
This year’s harvest has already seen 1,600 tonnes of produce gathered and stored, including wheat for Leckford flour and bakery goods, wheat for Wildfarmed products, oilseed rape for cold-pressed rapeseed oil, oats and malting barley.
Thomas Adami, farming operations manager at Leckford Farm, said the drought conditions meant that the plants were stressed, and in reaction to this they raced through their growth stages to produce their seed before they senesce, hence the earlier harvest.
"As we are increasing the organic matter content of our soils through our farming practices, (cover crops, integrating livestock, minimising disturbance etc) we are seeing that our soils have a higher water holding capacity which helps our resilience to drought extremes.
"An increase in 1% soil organic matter leads to an increase of 168,000L extra water holding per hectare available to the crops.”
He added that the team is already preparing for the next season, with straw being baled for cattle, manure spread ahead of planting and cover crops sown to protect soil health over winter.
Alongside the early arable harvest, Waitrose has also reported a surge in demand for classic autumn fruits, with sales of blackberries up 56%, Bramley apples up 23% and Conference pears up 21% compared with this time last year.
Colin Pratt, fruit farm manager at Leckford, said: “We're anticipating an earlier harvest—approximately 7-10 days ahead of average—due to the long, hot summer.
"We also expect this to be a higher 'Brix' year, the measurement used to establish how much sugar is in fruits, indicating a healthier and more nutrient-dense crop.”
Jessica Street, apple buyer at Waitrose, added: “We've got an early start to the apple season this year, all thanks to ideal spring conditions and a warm temperature throughout the growing season accelerating the ripening process for many fruits, like apples."
