Flower power
A farm business with a difference in Clare
Sarah Wall knew she was taking a step into the unknown when she set up the Burren Flower Farm in 2015. Driven by a passion for sustainability and farm diversification, the ag-science graduate decided to try something that had never been tried before — to make a living growing wild flowers in the Burren.
Sarah’s 18-acre plot is a mixture of limestone pavement, land formally used as grassland pasture and scrubland.
These distinct habitats, and her purpose-built polytunnel, allow her to grow and use a wide variety of wild flowers in a relatively small area.
She has also identified an emerging market of customers who are happy to pay for Irish grown, native plants and flowers to decorate their wedding or special occasion.
“The inter-connectedness and proximity of those distinct ecosystems to each other is very important to how the farm functions as a whole,” says the Dublin woman.
“The Burren Flower Farm is not a tidy space. It isn’t Bloom or the Chelsea Garden Show. The vast majority of it is wild with very minimal management.”
The idea for the flower farm came from Sarah’s strong interest in insect pollinators and bees in particular. While the Burren is a noted bee habitat, the local bee population has been in decline in recent years.
“I got thinking about insects in general and their food sources and that initiated the idea of growing flowers for a living,” she says.
“I had long wondered why we imported all our flowers from Holland and Kenya. It didn’t seem to make sense.
Growing conditions
“We have incredible growing conditions in Ireland, though climate change is certainly making land management a more challenging prospect, but compared to many other countries we still have much in our favour.
“The more self-sufficient we can become in our food and fuel chain and our general consumption of goods, then the less air miles, the less emissions, the smaller our carbon footprint.
“Reducing carbon miles and providing a locally grown product was a very significant driver in starting the business.”
These days Sarah sees herself as both a farmer and an environmentalist. She believes that the worldwide move towards sustainability will provide opportunities for farmers — especially small farmers in the west of Ireland.
“Operating sustainably can mean harder work and it can sometimes give less of a return, but you have to take a longer-term view,” she says.
“If we want to complain about climate change and the impact it is having on our farms, we have to acknowledge that we are contributing to it.
“I think that smaller farmers would be more likely to be interested in this sort of farming, and right now, it’s the smaller farmers who are under the most pressure.
“I think they feel that their back is to the wall and they don’t want to hear it [about the environment]. I have friends who are very traditional, conventional farmers. I hear about their struggles all the time. I think people need to look at niche farming.”
Green movement
In many ways, Ms Wall sees herself and her business as a bridge between farming and the green movement. She believes that farmers, and especially small farmers, need to embrace the global move towards sustainability and take advantage of the opportunities that it offers.
“As land owners we are custodians
Sarah believes the worldwide move towards sustainability will provide opportunities for farmers in the west of Ireland
of a powerful resource. In the debate about diversification we need to acknowledge that society and markets are changing drastically,” she says.
“Farming as a business needs to change at the same speed. Farming is a business, a lifestyle and a vocation. When you’re tied to the land you see climate change intimately on an hourby-hour basis. You are affected by it directly, but you also affect it directly. The day of spraying every living inch with pesticides has gone.”
In Sarah’s opinion, the key to any new farm business is to start small and grow it slowly.
“If you are starting a new business from fresh, it is probably best to start lean. I am working this by myself, I don’t have staff costs, so it didn’t make sense to invest large amounts of money until I knew where I was going,” she says.
“My logic was that if I go big, I would risk sabotaging myself. So I decided to start small and grow it as I go.”