Bumper blackcurrant harvest predicted

Farmer holding Big Berry Bash after long hot sunny summer provided ideal conditions for fruit growing

Most Scottish farmers would describe the weather of 2018 as “challenging”, but for blackcurrant grower Andrew Husband, of East Adamston near Dundee, there has never been a better season.

Local families will get the chance to see the bumper crops for themselves today at the farm’s Big Berry Bash which takes place between 11am-3pm and features trailer tours to the fields to see the harvesting machines in operation as well as purple space hopper races, a bouncy castle, live music, outdoor games and free barbecue and pick-yourown fruit.

The cold chill in March suited the crop and the warm sunny spell that followed was perfect for insect activity and led to perfect flowering and early bud break.

The long hot sunny summer which followed produced some of the highest sugars ever recorded in the farm’s fruit crop.

Andrew said: “Blackcurrants are deep rooted so not affected by drought, although establishing young cuttings was tough going this year, yet they came through well.

“We have had huge crops, great yields and the Brix levels – the natural sugars – have peaked at 23 as a result of the high temperatures, and we get a bonus for that.”

The harvest is already two thirds completed, with just one variety still to cut, with all the fruit destined for Santory’s Ribena production further south.

The Husband family have been growing blackcurrants for 35 years and now devote 60ha to long rows of the bushes on their farm’s rich south-facing slopes.

The family was among the first in the country to grow the crop commercially, and while they have other enterprises on the farm Andrew and his wife, Julie, enjoy the direct link to the end-user of their product.

Yields of four tonnes per acre are considered good, but yields as high as eight tonnes per acre have been achieved with some of the six varieties which ripen at different times to spread the East Adamston harvest.

Julie is the Scottish representative on Santory’s Blackcurrant Federation group which encourages people to use blackcurrants, discover their benefits and to purchase the fruit from local farms.

This year’s farm open day is bigger than ever, with room for 150 people, and there are still a few spaces left.

To register visit ribena.co.uk/big berrybash

Blackcurrants are deep rooted so not affected by drought, although establishing young cuttings was tough going this year

Pictures: Gareth Jennings. For blackcurrant grower Andrew Husband of East Adamston, near Dundee, there has never been a better season.