Record number of pickers boost firm's annual elderflower harvest

The soft drinks company invite members of the public to do the picking each summer and this time they came from Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Cambridgeshire, rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in after weather patterns accelerated flower growth and brought forward picking by several weeks.

To celebrate four decades of the firm’s elderflower cordial and community harvest where, uniquely, people are paid for the flowers they collect, they were joined this year by model and TV presenter Georgia Jones, a former Miss England and wife to McFly frontman Danny Jones.

Georgia enjoyed filling baskets with flowers and taking them back to the bottling plant, before helping to infuse them and turn them into cordial.

She also hosted a vintage floral tea party in the company’s elderflower fields, where she was joined by Great British Bake Off finalist Josh Smalley, also from Leicestershire, who created a show-stopping elderflower-themed celebration cake and afternoon tea menu for the occasion.

Pev Manners, founder of Belvoir Farm, which is based at Barkestone Lane in Bottesford, said: “This year’s harvest and all the 40th birthday celebrations that went with it have been superb.

“Our wonderful community came out in force once again and it’s this dedication from the hundreds of people who come on board each year to earn some extra income and help us pick every elderflower on the farm that’s kept our cordial going for 40 years.

"We’d like to thank everyone for taking part.”

The company says the secret of its cordial success is its distinctive taste, which is developed as the freshly picked flowers gently infuse for 24 hours to be turned into the rich and fragrant drink, still made to Pev’s mum’s original recipe.

They began making cordials in 1984 and sold about 1,000 bottles of the Elderflower to the local fine food stores and farm shops – the firm now makes a range of 40 drinks.

On this year’s harvest, Pev added: “It was great to invite Georgia and Josh into the wonderful Vale of Belvoir countryside.

" It was a lot of fun working with them and Josh’s cake and afternoon tea was thoroughly enjoyed.”