Belvoir Farm issues urgent call for local elderflower pickers as mini heatwave accelerates flower growth
- Emily Miller
- May 6
- 3 min read
Leicestershire: You are needed!
The extreme weather that has hit the UK last week has brought forward a popular community elderflower harvest by two weeks. Belvoir Farm has issued an urgent call for help from the local community to get involved earlier than expected.
Showing how unpredictable the seasons have become, this year’s harvest at Belvoir Farm, which would usually start at the beginning of June, will kick off on May 19, with people once again getting paid to pick the flowers needed for the company’s award-winning elderflower cordial.
The sudden weather change, coupled with the driest March in 60 years has meant that the English elderflower blooms that herald the start of summer are already well on their way.
Belvoir Farm MD, 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.”
Belvoir Farm’s 60acre organic elderflower plantations are the largest in the UK and its popular harvest has been connecting local communities with each other and nature for over four decades.
Last year model and influencer Georgia Jones, wife of McFly star Danny, launched the harvest with a VIP and community 80s-themed vintage tea party held in the brand’s elderflower fields to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
This year, as a thank you to the community for over 40 years of loyal service, Belvoir Farm will be hoping to get a record number of people together for its 'Big Elderflower Pick-nic', inviting individuals and community groups to get involved.
Taking place on June 6, it will be hosted by Karen Burns-Booth, the food & travel writer behind the popular Lavender & Lovage blog, and will celebrate the spirit and power of community to help make this year Belvoir Farm’s most successful harvest to date.
With her passion for local, seasonal produce, Karen will be inviting local community groups to come together to pick elderflower, visit the farm or attend the Pick-nic event which will be held in the company’s elderflower fields.
“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,” says Karen. 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.”
The elderflower harvest will run for five to six weeks. Pickers who take part will be paid for every kilo of flowers they pick and can rest assured that Belvoir Farm, with their own sustainable farming methods and Countryside Stewardship practices, always give at least as much back to the land as they harvest.
To ensure product freshness, pickers will be encouraged to pick and drop-off on the same day. As in previous years, pickers will be paid in cash once the elderflowers have been weighed and verified.
