Belvoir Farm in Bottesford celebrates ‘bumper’ elderflower harvest despite ‘bizarre’ weather

A family-owned drinks company has enjoyed a “bumper” harvest season, despite the “bizarre” weather.

Belvoir Farm, in Bottesford, is celebrating the completion of its elderflower harvest, which finished in June.

However, the “unpredictable” weather shaved two weeks off the usual six-week quest to pick and produce the flowers before getting them into the cordial.

Pev Manners, founder of Belvoir Farm, said: “Despite worries about this year’s harvest, the June sunshine really encouraged the elderflowers, so we’ve actually had one of our biggest harvests ever.

“But at the start of the year, we were getting quite concerned.

“The weather was bizarre, not like anything we’ve ever seen before in 40 years of picking flowers and making our cordial.

“There was a February drought, then we had six months’ worth of rain in one month.

“April was a total wash out and we were glad for the sunshine when it finally appeared, but then we had the problem of the hot sun making the flowers brown very quickly and when this happens, they can’t be used.

“It reduced this year’s harvest by about four days either side, so it was a race against time to get all the flowers picked.”

This year, picking took place from Belvoir Farm’s 60-acre organic plantation and also from surrounding hedgerows.

TV presenter and gardening expert Daisy Payne joined in with the harvest and then also helped to take them back to the bottling plant.

Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire Mike Kapur OBE also paid a visit, meeting Pev and the team to tour the elderflower fields and bottling plant, and go behind the scenes of the company’s drinks production.

Pev concluded: “I’ve been picking elderflowers since I was a young boy, when my mother started making elderflower cordial on our kitchen table to her own original recipe.

“The wonder of our cordial is the fantastic taste, which is developed as the freshly picked flowers gently infuse for 24 hours to be turned into a rich and fragrant cordial, whose recipe has remained the same for nearly 40 years.

“It was great to invite Daisy into the wonderful Vale of Belvoir countryside.

“It was a lot of fun working with her and to welcome her into the beautiful, wild organic fields at our farm.”