Wild Harvest
Working with nature
Our wild-harvest approach to conservation identifies opportunities to nurture and use plants growing naturally on the marshes. This encourgaes biodiversity rather than a mono-culture approach to production, using the resources of the marsh sustainably and aligned with the natural cycle.
The marshes provide multiple wild harvests throughout the year during which we crop a proportion and leave plenty to ensure future harvests. Each plant species forms an important part of the natural ecosystem as well as a valuable resource for the ongoing sustainability of the marshes.
Natural flora offers a wealth of benefits, from the soothing water-mint that thrives on the wet marshes in the summer months to the cascading hop vines with their spectacular aromatic show in September.
Nettles, elderflower, meadowsweet and dandelions also add to the lush and varied harvest, each playing an important role in the natural habitat diversity.
Wild Harvest Products
Hand picked, dried and packed on site using wild water-mint, fen nettle, dandelion, elderflower and meadowsweet.
Lumpwood Charcoal
High quality charcoal produced cleanly from seasoned wood in our charcoal retort. A great use for wood harvested during conservation work.
Wild hops thrives among the reeds and willow, harvested each September and brewed to create two deliciously destinct beers.
Rethinking 'Waste' to 'Harvest'
Actively managed conservation involves seasonal cutting, clearing and removing of excess growth to allow light and space for a diverse range of plants to flourish. Traditionally the resulting ‘arisings’ are seen as a waste product and often burnt for easy disposal.
Wild harvest is a more selective approach, identifying uses for the cleared material. Selective cutting throughout the year provides the opportunity to use everything as the seasons rotate and so create harvests in preference to simply removing waste.
Ecological and economical sustainability go hand in hand.
