When it comes to the nation's favourite vegetable, only peas can go head to head with potatoes in the popularity stakes.
So brace yourself for a shock – the heatwaves that so delighted sun-worshippers this year have been a disaster for the British pea harvest.
Farmers fear there will be a shortage in supermarket freezers after consistently dry weather resulted in the earliest harvest in 14 years.
In fact, the volume of picked and processed peas has fallen by up to 30 per cent this year.
However, while poor yields might be bad news for farmers in the pea-growing regions of East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, the balmy weather means those peas that do make it to dinner plates are likely to be sweeter than usual.
