MANY British farmers have been enjoying an excellent year as the weather produced near perfect growing conditions for a whole range of crops.

And the humble British leek is one that has thrived this year giving customers the chance to enjoy excellent quality vegetables over a long season.

The massive mechanised leek producers of Lincolnshire, supplying major supermarkets, have driven down leek prices forcing many of the bigger producers of Worcestershire out of the business.

However a few small producers remain such as Gwillams at Bevere, Worcester, where leeks are pulled by hand fresh from the field for the farm shop and any surplus are taken to Wolverhampton wholesale market so they don’t rot in the field.

David Gwillam, who runs the farm, said: “We don’t grow a lot but it is something we can grow close to the shop and it is a crop that holds for a long time.”

They start pulling early variety leeks as soon as August and when these finish at Christmas they move onto a later variety that can go on until April.

“Like everything in farming, the crop depends on the weather,” said David. “If you get the right conditions the leeks will hold really well. It has grown very well this year. You don’t want it too hot and we had rain in July which was just right. We have had tremendous cauliflowers and cabbages this year too. It was reasonably warm and wet this year.”

He added that there had also been very few problems from pests and disease.

He explained they don’t grow their leeks from seed, as they are difficult to establish, but use module/plug plants. “It is so difficult to get seeds established and they are very slow growing early on. But we get thousands of leeks from our small acreage using module plants,” said David.

A member of staff pulls the leeks by hand and they go straight into cold storage and into the shop as they are needed. Even if they are not all pulled and sold on the same day, the leeks at Gwillams will be a lot fresher than those processed by the large suppliers to supermarkets, he added.

And because there is very little handling, there is likely to be less damage to the individual leek.

“We get them straight into the cold room, then into the shop and straight into the customer’s bag.” In fact, this year the leek crop couldn’t be closer – it’s right next to the farm shop.

David said: “The beauty of the leek is that when they are pulled, they might not look cosmetically perfect but when you take off the outer leaves you have a beautiful leek. They are easy to cook and really tasty.

“This time of year we sell a lot more because people are cooking stews and casseroles and they give a lovely flavour.”