Expect smaller, sweeter brussels sprouts this year, say farmers

Due to the lack of water in the summer, which was the driest on record for the UK, brussels sprouts have not been able to grow to their full potential, a grower association has said.

Richard Mowbray of the UK Brassica Growers Association said that this year’s batch will be at the smaller end of normal supermarket specifications which are between 18mm to 40mm.

Mowbray said Christmas diners shouldn’t expect any drop in quality from their smaller sprouts, which taste sweeter than their larger counterparts.

“They used to be sold as a premium product, as baby sprouts,” he said.

This year’s heatwave and drought saw temperatures hit a new UK high of 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, which produces around 60 per cent of the country’s brassicas, the vegetable family to which sprouts belong.

Some 25 per cent of all sprouts in the UK are sold over the Christmas period, although only half of the 750 million sprouts produced a year are eaten, according to the University of Warwick.

Sub-zero temperatures this winter are also making the picking tricky.

“It’s challenging. We had the heat wave, and now we have the really low temperatures – the timing could not be worse,” a Lincolnshire-based grower told BBC.

Climate change is expected to bring more heatwaves, and made this year’s drought 20 times more likely, according to a study by scientists at the World Weather Attribution service.

This year’s frost could also make Brussels sprouts sweeter this year, according to researchers at the University of Warwick, which is working on genetic modifications to make the sometimes-controversial Christmas dinner vegetable more palatable.