Keavey has harvested 20 crops including kale, lettuce, cucumber, broccoli and cabbage over the past three weeks due to the dry and warm weather. He was even moved to post a \u201cdesperate\u201d plea on social media for people to come and buy his ballooning courgette stock.<\/p>\n
His farm relies on sales of the courgette crop to survive financially from July to September, but he says there has been a drop off in orders due to the heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have a courgette mountain due to the amazing weather, which is fantastic for production, but that brings its own problems,\u201d Keavey says. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the vegetable orders are being affected. People don\u2019t want to cook because of the hot weather. So, with the courgettes, if you don\u2019t harvest them in early morning and finish by midday, the vegetable cooks itself because of the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The farm harvested half a tonne of courgettes last week, half of which went to waste. Keavey says this week will be \u201cjust as challenging\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year the farm made a loss, and we have been spending the past six to seven months getting the land ready for harvesting from July onwards, hoping to have a good harvest,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow we are \u2013 thanks to the weather \u2013 but people are not cooking. The last thing I want to be doing is dumping the crops on a compost heap. It\u2019s extremely demoralising.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the warmer weather has helped some vegetable crops to grow, it has been the opposite story for many fruit growers.<\/p>\n
![\"Des](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/CZQATT2MKC35WWRXPASDFOJSQI.jpg\")
Des Jeffares on his blackcurrant farm in Ballykelly, Co Wexford <\/p>\n
Des Jeffares, who owns and runs Ballykelly Farms in Co Wexford<\/a>, has been in operation since 1955 and is Ireland\u2019s only remaining commercial blackcurrant producer. <\/p>\n The farm has 60 acres dedicated to the fruit, but Jeffares says the crop is \u201csuffering\u201d from the heat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sell the blackcurrants for jam-making, juice, yoghurt-makers and the drinks industry,\u201d he says. \u201cOur cropping season would be seven to 10 days ahead of time and it\u2019s down to climate change and a lack of rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n He has attended conferences across Europe over the past number of years, and says the consensus is that a tougher type of blackcurrant grown in the likes of France is what is needed now for crops here to deal with the changes in the weather.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are no longer getting the winter chill and there is a direct correlation with fruit cropping,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are getting through the harvest much too quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cLate next week we will be cropping a variety of blackcurrant which is normally left until the middle of August. That is normally our banker crop. But the fruit will fall off if we don\u2019t crop next week.\u201d<\/p>\n The entire blackcurrant market is now domestic since the UK-based makers of Ribena decided not to renew contracts to Irish growers in 2013.<\/p>\n Philip Little of the Little Irish Apple Co in Piltown, Co Kilkenny<\/a>, farms 45 acres, 22 of which are dedicated to Bramley cooking apples and the remainder to eating apples. <\/p>\n He is one of three growers who supply supermarket chain Aldi<\/a>. But the fruit, so far, is \u201clooking small\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe apple trees are 36 years old and are well established. I am concerned about this year due to the heat but we will have to see if we get rain. We will have to get rain eventually. By September \u2013 when we harvest \u2013 we will know more then.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would need to look at using irrigation but it is costly. It is a basic principle and there is a real need to install irrigation due to climate change but I can\u2019t afford to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Cornelius](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/OLO7P4EZANDUZNAI4QK7IYW6QI.JPG\")
Cornelius Traas of the Apple Farm, Cahir, Co Tipperary. Photograph: Patrick Browne <\/p>\n