AN IRISH VEGETABLE grower has said that he will have to compost the majority of his latest harvest as people have stopped cooking due to the hot weather.

Met Éireann has warned that the prolonged spell of hot weather we’ve been having is expected to last into next week. The current spell is the third period of hot weather we’ve experienced since late May. 

Kenneth Keavey, from Green Earth Organics in Co Galway, has said that the weather means his farm is overflowing with produce”, but nobody is buying it.

In a post on Instagram, Keavey said the organic farm has seen a “drastic decline” in order this summer as schools close, people go on holidays and the weather disrupts cooking routines.

“Nobody wants to be in a hot kitchen cooking in the heat,” he said.

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Keavey said he will harvest over half a tonne of courgettes next week, the majority of which he believes will end up on the compost heap.

“This is deeply demoralising, we have worked hard for at least six months to get the land and the food ready and now it is and not to be able to sell it, is an impossible situation,” he said. 

He said that many other small scale organic farms across the country are in the same “desperate situation” this summer.

“Many of you our customers have stopped ordering for the summer, and we have seen a drastic decline in orders, all for completely understandable reasons: Schools closing, people going on holidays, and ironically the hot weather, which has disrupted cooking routines, nobody wants to be in a hot kitchen cooking in the heat,” he said.