Brits can expect one item on the Christmas dinner plate to be 25% bigger this year thanks to its excellent growing conditions.
According to Tescos, this popular Christmas staple’s growing conditions have produced new and hardier varieties that could see many Brits reevaluate their opinion on this hotly debated vegetable.
Thanks to the “best [crop] we’ve had in recent years”, these items are set to be the real winner when it comes to foods on your Christmas dinner plate, added the major UK retailer.
TH Clements, a vegetable wholesaler who also supplies to Tesco, further highlighted how great harvesting conditions compared to last year has allowed for the best Brussel Sprouts.
According to TH Clements, the average sprout size this year is 30mm in diameter, an impressive feat compared to the previous year’s 24mm sprout.
Heavy rainfall during November and December last year was a major contributor to the poor crop of sprouts which impacted the sprout yield to be lower than average.
But not this year as John Moulding explains, the commercial director TH Clements – a Lincolnshire-based vegetable supplier.
He said: “This year we’ve pretty much had a reversal in growing conditions to 2023.
“[We’ve had] the right amounts of warmth and sunshine during the summer months after they were planted, good amounts of rain during the autumn and now colder weather in December.”
TH Clements have also been encouraging more producers to plant more crops on the alluvial silts that’s deposited by running water and found on the east coast of Lincolnshire.
As these silts are found in different growing areas it allowed the sprouts to “have their own microclimates and coastal frost protection” which has allowed the vegetable to “enjoy the breeze of the coast that gives frost protection.”
Buying manager at Tesco, Simon Tenwick said: “The quality of the festive crop that has been coming through in the last few weeks is among the best we’ve had in recent years, “We are certain sprout fans will be delighted.”
Tesco expects to sell a whopping 1.5million kg of sprouts in the two weeks that lead up to Christmas, which accounts for 25% of the annual sprout consumption.
According to these figures, this works out to being three sprouts for every person in the country which will be good news for the quarter of Brits who admitted they love the vegetable.
This was according to HelloFresh’s data which further looked at the nation’s true feelings when it came to Brussel Sprouts.
According to the survey, an impressive 52 % of Brits admitted they enjoyed eating the vegetable all year round.
The other half of Brits (48%) admitted they reserve eating Brussel Sprouts only for Christmas Day.
And despite the vegetable having a bad rep, only 13% of participants in the survey admitted to down hating them.
