Inga Dolgilevich at The Orchard in Grantchester with this year's early apple harvest.

THIS year’s erratic weather has left Cambridgeshire with a bumper crop of fruit almost a month ahead of schedule.

But not without hard work, as orchard owners had to battle against the region’s hottest April on record, a drought, and freak frosts in May.

The city’s fruit trees are straining under the weight of this year’s yield as well after a hot, dry spring and wet, early summer left the boughs laden down.

April in East Anglia saw top temperatures of 17.8C - the hottest on record - while May was the ninth hottest seen, then came the wettest June bar one since 1999 with 65.5mm of rainfall.

The news comes despite concerns in May farmers had lost out after a hard frost took hold.

Cam Valley Orchards, a 147-year-old orchard south of the city, is run by Tim Elbourne.

He said the frost had left a mixed crop but he had to remove fruit from the trees to prevent branches from breaking.

“It’s certainly very early. The crop itself is patchy as we had a bad frost in May which hit certain areas and varieties,” he said.

The hot spring brought trees full of blossom which in turn brought plenty of fruit. But as the fruit fight for space on the branch, farmers have to thin the fruit - the art of removing excess fruit - to allow others to grow.

“If you don’t thin them out they can hang like a bunch of grapes and won’t grow to a commercial size, which is no use to anyone. They’ll break the branches on the trees as otherwise,” Mr Elbourne added.

The bumper crop of apples has not affected fruit prices as farmers say the market has remained strong.

Mr Elbourne said recent poor exchange rates had stopped competition from imported fruit, giving English farmers a better chance in the home market: “The prices are good at the moment. The market is very fickle, it can be a war of attrition.”

Ben Aveling runs Radmore Farm Shop in Chesterton Road with his wife Victoria. He said, much like petrol, prices will often rise on a year-on-year basis anyway and seasonal variations seem to have little effect.

“We’ve had the apples in early and there’s been a bumper crop of potatoes because of suitable conditions,” he said.

“Technically, this should put prices down but not actually. Prices just go up every year.”

It’s not just commercial orchards which have seen the bloom. Pauline Holmes has been manager at the Orchard Tea Garden for nine years.

“It’s a very heavy, early crop,” she said, “It’s not the heaviest I’ve seen but it’s the earliest.”

“It’s normally September we’d be picking all the apples but we are doing it now. The plums are ready as well.”

The cold winter - East Anglia saw a 4.3 average temperature for January - also had a hand in the good yield.

Susanna Colaco is a committee member at Trumpington Community Orchard and has her own allotment.

She explained how the cold snap at the start of the year prepared the fruit for a “battle for survival”.

There a number of orchards growing around Cambridge - Trumpington, Girton, Harston, Cambourne - many of them young, which bucks the county-wide trend.

Martin Skipper, project manager at East of England Apples and Orchards Project, said Cambridgeshire has lost 50 per cent of its orchards over the past 50 years.

“Now, it’s economies of scale. The county is supporting as many orchards as it can,” he said.