It has welcomed the rainy weather and harnessed the extra moisture to sprawl out and create a bumper crop.

Their strength to endure the unusual season brought a smile to Oakhampton farmer Austin Breiner's face and gave him something to sell at the Slow Food Earth Market in The Levee in Central Maitland this week.

That was a win for him because the wet weather in January largely decimated his vegetable crops - and then he had more trouble with the wet weather in March.

He only has some pumpkins, leeks and a bit of citrus to sell, along with the chokos.

The only problem was that nobody wanted to buy them.

"Everyone has chokos at the moment, they thrive in the wet. I've noticed in other years that as soon as you get a real hot day their leaves dry up and the flowers wilt over," he said.

Related: Austin got a head start on his winter crops but mother nature had other ideas

"The only problem is that nobody wants to buy them. There must have been 10 people at the market selling chokos yesterday - and Amorelle's [Dempster] shop is full of them, so we need a choko fest."

Mr Breiner is still picking the crop and expects to have chokos for a while yet.

He didn't care for them much as a kid - mainly because his mum used to boil them and he thought the taste was quite bland.

But, he said his wife Laurel made delicious pickles with them and you could also bake them with a bit of salt and pepper.

Mr Breiner said he wouldn't have his usual range of vegetables until late winter, and that of course, was dependent on the weather.

"All of the early stuff I planted was lost in the heavy rain earlier this year so that put me back quite a lot," he said.

"I've got a heap of stuff now that I've been planting out for a few weeks but it won't be ready to pick for some time.

"Hopefully we get a bit of light rain and no more of this heavy stuff."

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