Lower House Farm

Lower House Farm in Canon Frome near Ledbury is a working farm growing cereals and cider apples. But it's diversified in recent years to bring people onto the land to connect with nature in new ways. We met with Bruce and Alison Gilbert who run the business.

A commitment to net zero is not something we decided to take on - it's been part of our thinking and work for years as we've focused on keeping our farm sustainable - moving towards minimal tillage, planting hedgerows, cutting back on ploughing. We have 90kw of solar here and want to expand that. We are constantly aware and reflective of what we need to do. Joining the Greener Footprints initiative was a natural step, so we could share with and learn from what the business community is doing in Herefordshire.

While we're a working farm growing cereals and cider apples, people know us for PYO pumpkins and flowers and the work we do to minimise food waste from pumpkins - encouraging pickers in October to try pumpkin recipes with the flesh left over after carving. We also donate extra pumpkins to foodbanks and gleaning charities. Our Pick Your Own Flowers offers florists and flower retailers locally grown flowers on their doorstep during the summer. We've been planting a two-acre sunflower maze, plus a grand mix of hand sown annuals including Cornflowers, Larkspur, Zinnia and Poppies. Our customers nowadays are more aware of the air miles involved with imported flowers, and this gives them the chance to pick and buy flowers on their doorstep while stepping into nature.  This year we’ve also been involved in Sunshine Radio’s ‘Summer of Sunflowers’ project and provided schools with seeds so they can grow their own bee-friendly gardens and see the positive impact they have on biodiversity.

We hope when people come here to pick flowers or pumpkins it connects them to nature and inspires new thinking about how we protect it in the county. We also want to bring people into nature by offering team building/networking opportunities on the site - we've created a space for this and bought in a pizza oven to support the catering!