An Over Stowey organic farmer has spoken of his concerns to the Bridgwater Mercury about how recent mild winters are affecting his crops.

“The last three years have seen mild and warm autumns,” said Richard Remke, “or it seems that way to me. We’ve observed it through onion drying conditions, as onions are one of our crops. And normally we would harvest our potatoes and store them in the shed in the dark but this year we have had to cold store them as it’s been 15C outside. In the past we’ve been worried about the frost but not this winter.”

Crops have also ripened earlier than usual he said which has seen a change of when they are harvested which affects storage times and when they are sold.

“Cauliflowers have come earlier,” he said, “the variety that we grow are normally ready about December and early January in time for our Christmas sale, but they had all gone by the beginning of December. They are coming four to six weeks early. Celeriac which in the old days you’ve got to get out of the ground by Christmas because of the dangers of frost. But this winter they haven’t stopped growing and they are getting huge and although still edible but are so big. Size is important in the vegetable business. You can’t have things too small or too big.”

He said the lack of frost doesn’t kill off all the aphids as winter temperatures help to control the insect population so the mild winters are allowing a population increase in pests. Some people he said believe that you need a few frosts to change the sugar content of Brussel sprouts but this winter there have been very few cold snaps.

“I think the last time we had a cold winter was 2011,” he said, “so we have to adapt our growing methods to take it into account. In some ways we are doing it, for instance we are planting spinach later and we used to grow winter salad in poly tunnels in August but now we’re sowing them a month later.”

Richard Plowright and Remke Cool are the couple behind Plowright Organic. They have a farm shop and organic farm at Over Stowey, near Bridgwater.

Do you have an interesting business story? Email harry.mottram@nqsw.co.uk