Woman earns £150 a day from only flowers

A woman is making £150 a day doing a job that nobody would have imagined.

Tania Holmes, from Bolsover in Derbyshire, not far from Sheffield, first came across the idea of picking flowers when she lived a 10-minute drive away from a farm. While visiting the farm, where she used to buy soft drinks, she discovered elderflower picking.

And during Covid that discovery became a lifeline, as she and many, began picking flowers for extra income. Tania, who had lost her job, began working the job as a side hustle reports Derbyshire Live.

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The 46-year-old has gone on to enjoy lucrative returns from the job. Explaining, she said: “I used to love picking elderflowers to help the team from Belvoir Farm make their cordial, each year during the harvest. It was a lovely way to get fit and enjoy the beautiful countryside, but during Covid it changed from being a fun and relaxing pastime to an essential lifeline for earning extra funds”

Fruit picking has always been a good way for people to earn extra money. But with Covid and the high cost of living now, it’s even more important for many people.

On a good day, Tania makes around £150. The job and process is also quite simple. At Belvoir Farm, there is a special period of six weeks when flowers are ready to be picked.

This happens from the end of May to the end of June. They grow flowers on their 60-acre organic plantation and in the hedges around it. They are the only ones in the UK who rely on the community to help with the harvest. Every year, people come back to pick flowers and bring them to the company’s headquarters.

The company asks the community to join them in picking flowers. They pay the pickers £3.30 for every kilogram of flowers they bring to the factory.

Tania explained how she makes £150 a day, saying: “I was made redundant during Covid and the elderflower picking paid for essential bills. Since then, I’ve set up my own business (@revampedcurtains) recycling textiles for soft furnishings and I also work for English Heritage.

“I still drive down to Bottesford on my days off to do a day of picking. By starting early and really putting the hard work in, I can probably get paid up to £150 for what I collect”.

Belvoir Farm managing director Pev Manners said: “Tania is one of our wonderful regular pickers, and she even comes down from where she lives now and makes a whole day of it. I’ve been picking elderflowers since I was a young boy when my mother started making elderflower cordial on our kitchen table with her own original recipe.

“The wonder of our cordial is the fantastic taste, which is developed as the freshly picked flowers gently infuse for 24 hours to provide a rich and fragrant cordial, whose recipe has remained the same for nearly 40 years. We’re glad we can offer people the opportunity to earn some extra income during these difficult times.”