When his asparagus field was underwater after a recent downpour, Booker got out his paddleboard and wetsuit to try harvesting a few spears.
A photo of what he called the “s***s and giggles” escapade, posted on Facebook, showed the water level after it had already partially drained away. At its height it overtopped some of the raised rows.
Booker owns Grown, based on his 6ha block near Sefton, North Canterbury. He sells almost exclusively through six regular farmers’ markets in and around Christchurch. However, after the asparagus flood he had to pull out of one weekend market because of a lack of produce.
Booker says the continuing wet was making the season one of the toughest of his 15 years in business.
“We need to be flat out planting. Every other year I’ve got sweetcorn and pumpkins in by now but it’s just been too wet.”
He is predicting shortages and higher prices for everyone.
“Every grower in the country’s in the same boat. It’s going to result in a few gaps.”
Although Booker had since been able to harvest asparagus, the worry now is a possible root rot caused by a fungus-like organism known as Phytophthora.
“We won’t know for a while if we’ve got it,” he told Rural News. “We generally do a lot of carrots, but our carrots -- the ones we planted midwinter -- drowned. They rotted in the ground and hardly any came up.”
His carrot planting has been held up, and when he does sow them he will have to grow them under covers to warm and speed them up.
“It’s getting tight because I need a lot of carrots for Christmas, so I’m hoping to try to get them in.”
Booker recently started a vege box service, delivering assorted seasonable vegetables to subscribers in North Canterbury.
Last week’s box included a kilo of asparagus plus lettuce, fennel, spring onions and apples from a family orchard at Motueka.
“It’s a bit limited at the moment,” says Booker.
