July in review

July.

SUMMER SUN BRINGS THE STRAWBERRY PEAK

July saw temperatures starting to rise, leading to a Summer we are not so used to in the UK.  This meant a lot of fruit was available but the sugar level (what we call brix) wasn’t getting to the levels we would expect.  Strawberries need a cool night to allow the plants to re-energise and produce the flavour we all love.  The nights in July were around 17 degrees and a bit too high to help this process.

Our workers were busy picking to keep up with a peak of production as well as keeping the plants in top condition.  We are removing leaves, tucking leaves under string so that the berries themselves have the most about of space and light, ready for further growth before picking.

We are cropping varieties Murano and Favori in our tunnel production, on tabletops that mean our workers can walk down the rows and easily do tasks, there’s no bending over low rows here.  The packhouse is busy packing fruit out in the summer standard of 400g punnet you see on the supermarket shelves; making sure our fruit it is getting to store as soon as possible after a fresh pick.