We’ve got a field. It’s called the Flat Square. It isn’t flat, and it isn’t square, and we’ve been growing birdseed on it for years without telling anyone the story behind it. That seemed daft, so here it is.

Thirty acres. Five crops. One field. Everything in your feeder, from one place, and we can tell you exactly where — right down to which bit of which field it came off.

Most birdseed you buy has come from somewhere, been mixed with something else from somewhere else, and by the time it reaches you there’s no way of knowing what grew where or how. This isn’t that. We know every acre because we planted it, watched it, and worried about it.

We split the Flat Square into five crops: black sunflowers, white millet, canary seed, linseed and buckwheat. Each one does a different job — for the birds, and for the soil.
Black sunflowers are the big one, literally — tall, obvious, and the crop most birds go straight for. White millet and canary seed are smaller and denser, good for the ground feeders. Linseed and buckwheat aren’t the ones you’d expect in a birdseed field, but they do more for the soil than the flashier crops, and the birds like them anyway.

We’re not going to pretend we got this perfect first time. Some of it’s an experiment — the acreage split between crops has shifted as we’ve learned what actually grows well where on this field, and it’ll probably shift again. That’s rather the point of doing it this way instead of just buying seed in from wherever’s cheapest.

Why It Matters (the birds bit)

We count what turns up. Sixty-three species so far, including Yellowhammer and Song Thrush — both on the UK Red List, both doing better here than they were.

That’s not us being clever. That’s what happens when you grow the right things and leave enough of it for the birds instead of us. Sixty-three species isn’t a number we set out to hit — it’s just what we counted when we started paying attention, which is a lesson in itself.

The Farm Behind It

Lower Blakemere’s been in the family since 1983. We’re one of seven Duchy focus farms working on regenerative farming with the Herefordshire Rural Hub Regenerative Farming Group with the Royal Countryside Fund — which mostly means we’re trying to do less damage and grow more life, (we don’t always get this right).

Phil and Monty run this side of things day to day — the actual decisions about what goes in the ground, when, and why. Carbon’s down 40% on the farm so far. We’re chuffed about that, though we’d rather show you than tell you.

Join the Field Club

Four bags a year, straight from the Flat Square, delivered when it’s ready — not before.
We can only support around 375 subscribers a year, because that’s what one field grows. When it’s full, it’s full.

Join The Field Club — Founding Flock price £24.95 (12.55kg bag)

(usually £29.95 — Founding Flock price for our first year)