Urgent call for community to join Belvoir Farm’s elderflower harvest after heatwave accelerates flower growth

This week’s mini heatwave has brought forward a popular elderflower harvest — and organisers have urgently called for help from the community.

Belvoir Farm’s harvest, which would usually start at the beginning of June, has been brought forward by two weeks due to the warm weather, and will instead kick off on May 19.

The community will once again get paid to pick the flowers needed for the Botteford-based company’s award-winning elderflower cordial.

Belvoir Farm’s managing director, Pev Manners, said "We're in our 41st year of harvest and it's always a challenging time with weather conditions. Last year was the sixth wettest spring on record, but this year it's been the driest March in 60 years and we've gone from monsoon conditions earlier in the year to a drought where we only had 7mm of rain last month.

“We’re having to water the elderflowers with reclaimed water from our barn roofs and because of this warmer sun, the flowers are starting to bud and we’ve had to bring the harvest forward by a couple of weeks. As a result, we’re asking our amazing local community to roll up their sleeves, get picking and bring in the harvest earlier much earlier this year.”

The elderflower harvest will run for five to six weeks, and pickers will be paid in cash for every kilo of flowers they pick, once weighed and verified.

Belvoir Farm promise to give at least as much back to the land as they harvest through sustainable farming methods and Countryside Stewardship practices.

It’s 60-acre organic elderflower plantations are the largest in the UK and its community harvest has been taking place for four decades.

This year, as a thank you to the community for over 40 years of loyal service, Belvoir Farm hopes to get a record number of people together for its 'Big Elderflower Pick-nic' on June 6, hosted by Karen Burns-Booth, the food and travel writer behind blog Lavender and Lovage.

Karen said: “I’ve long been a fan of Belvoir Farm and am delighted to be able to help make this elderflower harvest one of the biggest ever.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting different community groups to celebrate this quintessentially British flower and learn more about how it’s made into the delicious cordial we see on the supermarket shelves.”