Broc around the clock...

Florets will fly off to the shops three weeks early as crops enjoyed dry spell

- By Jaymi McCann

SUMMER vegetables will be on the shelves in shops sooner than normal after the driest spring for more than a century.

Cornish broccoli growers are set to begin harvesting their crops three weeks early, while pea growers will do likewise, a week in advance on June 10.

But they are hoping for more rain in the coming weeks, following the bank holiday weekend which has already brought with it the return of wet weather.

Stephen Francis, managing director of pea co-operative Fen Peas, said: "Spring has gone well, it has been one of the best we've had."