< PREVIOUS STORY | RETURN TO CONTENTS | NEXT STORY >

BY ANDREW MOURANT
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPHER JONES

When Kit Morris needed elderflowers for his wine, he found few takers. Then he met local farmer Richard Kelly and a vintage partnership was born...

They descend on the west country by the hundred in May and June, working along hedgerows and filling wicker baskets with elderflowers. They've never got rich, paid £1 per lb for the fruits of their labour; though adept old hands can make more than £100 a day.

This is the army of ad hoc pickers which, for years, kept an embryo soft drinks enterprise, the Bottle Green Drinks Company, in business. But then Waitrose got a taste for the firm's elderflower products. Demand soared and relying on casuals to provide the raw material became too hit and miss.

Bottle Green's founder, Kit Morris, a biochemist by training and wine-maker by profession, faced a dilemma. The great leap forward was dependent on a constant supply of flowers for his cordials and sparkling elderflower presse. He and his wife and co-partner, Shireen, considered growing the crop themselves; but they had a business to run and knew little about agriculture.

Little did Kit Morris dream in 1989, when he started making cordial from elderflowers gathered and stashed in his garage, that what began simply as an experiment to improve cash flow would become a runaway success. Annual production of sparkling elderflower presse is now three million bottles; of cordial around 750,000. Bottle Green exports to America and Canada. Turnover is £3.5m and the company employs 25.

Yet when Kit Morris asked local farmers if they would consider growing elderflower, he found no takers until he met organic farmer Richard Kelly whose business, a few miles from Bottle Green's headquarters in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, was at a crossroads. The travails of the beef and dairy industry had eroded Richard's income and, to some degree, his spirit. He was anxious to take a new direction as were the Morrises to find someone who would gamble on elderflower.

December 2000 | January 2001

'We aim to pick 30,000 kilos - around 30 tons. This year it was around 10,000 kilos,' says Richard Kelly (pictured). Progress has been hampered by the dry spring weather of 1995 and 1996.

Armed with a loan from Kit Morris, Richard put down half of his 110 acre holding to the elderflower. This was pioneering agriculture - one of the largest cultivations in Europe, 27,000 bushes in windswept fields high up in the Cotswolds. These were planted in 1995; the first crop harvested last year, four years after planting. But there's still a way to go. 'Eventually we aim to pick 30,000 kilos - around 30 tons. This year it was around 10,000 kilos - quite light and nowhere near what we're aiming for,' says Richard.

With an investment of £60,000, the stakes are high. And so, for the foreseeable future, until the bushes mature and produce more flowers, Bottle Green will need its legion of casual pickers.

Up on his farm at Nympsfield, Richard Kelly has become a keen student of the elderflower. To the untutored eye, one bush looks the same as another. But elderflower can be variable and temperamental, as Richard discovered when he bought seed from Holland that never took root. Much of his spare time is spent studying the crop on which he has staked his future.

Little did Kit Morris dream, when he started making cordial from elderflowers stashed in his garage, that turnover would reach £3.5m

At 47, Kit Morris looks made for life, though still can't quite believe how things have turned out. 'I keep pinching myself,' he says. 'I enjoy what I'm doing in a nice part of the world. I've been very lucky.'

For the full article, see pages 18-19 of the December/January 2000 issue of First Voice

Whilst every care has been taken in the compilation of this magazine, errors and omissions are not the responsibility of the publishers or of the editorial staff. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial staff. All rights reserved. Unless specifically stated, goods or services mentioned are not formally endorsed by the FSB which does not guarantee or endorse or accept any liability for any goods and/or services featured in this publication.

Copyright NFSE (Sales) Ltd 2000