A Day in the Field Supervisors shoes - By Jess Edwards
Over the summer months when the sun decides it’s finally ready to make an appearance, I can be found in
the flower field at Shropshire Petals. Accompanied by my chief helper Kipper of course.
With over 45,000 flowers in bloom and in need of picking, a summer
here can be very hectic - but never without its rewards. This year it was my job
to ensure that the 130 million petals grown here were harvested with care by
hand and made it down to the yard in perfect wedding condition.
The fields have been alive this year with constant appearances from hare,
partridge and the occasional herd of local deer. They usually appear around dusk
and can be seen admiring the view of our flowers. This means there are plenty
of interesting scents for Kipper to follow whilst I carry out my supervisory tasks.
The cornflowers are by far my favorite flower we have here at
Shropshire Petals. I relish the chance to go and pick them so I can
ensure that every head grown has the best chance of making it to a wedding!
On the other hand Kippers favourite flower is the calendula! Not
only because the colours are bright and attract lots of insects for him to
investigate, but because they are rather tasty too!
Shropshire Petals grow Calendula as a lovely addition to the
confetti, but before it's dried it can also be used in salads to create a more aesthetically
pleasing dish, therefore it’s no surprise that Kipper is partial to a petal or
two in the field!
The flowers and wildlife are not the only things to be found in the
fields at this time of year, there is also our team of students here to harvest
the crop. With some returnees that come back every year and new additions, the
team is never without its smiles.
This jumper was my find of the year. One of our students was supporting
this rather creative number and needless to say I was impressed with their
choice. I love how he’d captured Jim in such a great light!
The harvest is hard work and this year the SP team have done their
part in acknowledging and rewarding the effort the students have put in. This year
we have had our perfect petal award, with prizes going to the hardest working
student in that week.
Here we can see one of our students receiving a Shropshire Petals
“Perfect Petal†t-shirt.
I was expecting to see an appearance of the t-shirts at work once a
few had been given out. But when asked
the students told us that they didn’t want to remove them from the packets and
risk dirtying them, as they wanted to save them to show their families back
home! Undoubtedly the prizes are a keepsake, a memento from their time here and
a lovely souvenir to take back home.
So it seems the SP name will be traveling to Romania, Bulgaria and
Hungary in a few weeks time as our season draws to a close.
Just as we are reaching the end of the season we thought it would be
a nice treat to take the students to Alton towers for the day, even the 2 hour
queues could not dampen their spirits. So here is a picture of the motely crew,
with Jim and I “reppin’†the SP t-shirts and Ivo supporting the infamous bunny
ear prank! What a great way to draw my 4th year at Shropshire Petals
to an end before returning to University this October!
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