More and more fruit and veg is grown in the UK. I wash foreign fruit because it is widely accepted the pickers piss on it. I don’t wash blueberries from Harry Hall’s farm in Surrey. I put them on yogurt and muesli most mornings.They are just about the only healthy food I eat; low in sugar and high in nutrients (vitamins and antioxidants).
Fruit pickers still come from overseas. The Harry Hall website is in Russian, Polish, Romanian and Ukrainian as well as English. It is still seasonal work, although the season is longer, lasting from early Spring to late Autumn growing different varieties. It is an eight hour day, six days a week but the pay is better and accommodation (£75 a week including heating, electricity and Wifi) in comfy, furnished mobile homes is available. Many pickers come back year after year and one has stayed permanently – she married Harry Hall’s son who now runs the business his father founded.
In the kitchen garden at Barmeath fruit was covered in netting to keep the birds off and liberally sprinkled with DDT. At Harry Hall’s farms agronomics, solar energy and sustainability are at the forefront of their business model. In case you want to start growing blueberries at home, here’s how to do it.
“Blueberries differ from other berries in that they grow on a plant that could live for more than 20 years. Blueberry plant material can be propagated in a laboratory or as cuttings. these are carefully grown in propagation fields for a whole season.These plants are then replanted into production fields and In their first year, all the plant’s energy goes into building a strong bush which is carefully pruned to give the right shape, almost like a wine glass. This is needed for two reasons; to help prevent disease and to make it easier to harvest the berries.
In their second year we will harvest them for the first time. Yield will increase year after year until it reaches the maximum in the fifth season. Fruits are carefully picked and packed into punnets which are delivered to supermarkets. During the winter, the bushes are pruned into the wine glass shape to maximise fruit quality and yield for the next season.
In the years to come, the same process continues: growing new shoots, flowering, fruiting, picking and pruning. Each year the plants follow the cycle and continue to produce juicy berries for our consumers to savour.“ (hallhunter.com)
UK grown fruit and veg is a remarkable success story for farmers and consumers alike. Farmers grow what we want to eat, so I can buy small Jersey Royals and have steamed Pak Choi as well as blueberries. We only read about the woes of dairy farmers and egg producers being forced out of business by aggressive supermarket pricing or avian flu.