Lavender Harvest

When farmer Charlie Byrd was looking to diversify his arable farm near Broadway in the Cotswolds, he came up with the idea of growing lavender. Now the lavender is his chief source of income, bringing in more than the traditional wheat and barley which he still grows. The farm gets up to 20,000 tourists a year, attracted by the swathes of purple which cover the hillside, and by the the farm shop which sells everything from lavender soap to lavender chocolate. The oil is extracted from the plants on site, using the farm's specially-built lavender distillery. Emma Campbell visits the farm at harvest time, to find out how you go about harvesting and distilling lavender, and what kind of products it ends up in.

Produced and presented by Emma Campbell.