A Scorching April brought the county’s asparagus and strawberry crops in early this year.

At Peach Croft Farm in Abingdon, Bill Homewood has harvested eight acres of asparagus two weeks ahead of time and has watched it “bursting” out of the fields.

Mr Homewood, 52, explained: “We are having a great, but early, season for both asparagus and strawberries.

“In fact, the asparagus is already coming to an end because it was ready so early this year.

“Asparagus needs warm weather and the lovely weather in March and April really brought it on.”

He continued: “Asparagus is exciting to produce because it is so seasonal – the season lasts only about eight weeks a year in Britain and its success of relies so much on moisture levels in the soil and the temperature.”

Over at Medley Manor Farm in Binsey Lane, Oxford, farmer Charlie Gee, 47, said the sunny weather has brought a bumper crop of berries.

Mr Gee said: “The lovely weather early on in the growing season means we have wonderful strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants.

“We have had to irrigate the crops a lot more this year because of the lack of rain, but it hasn’t affected the fruit which is gorgeous.

“Now we are hoping for a couple more months of fine, sunny weather.”

Over at Millet’s Farm, Frilford, near Abingdon, Andrew Whittaker, 46, said: “The hot weather in March and April were fantastic, but like many other growers we have had to irrigate our strawberries this season, because there’s been a real lack of rain.

“Usually we’ve just started selling our asparagus, but we have already sold 3,000 bunches in the past six weeks – it’s been flying off the shelves. But we’ll be stopping cutting it shortly to protect the plants for next season.”