A familiar sight across the Essex countryside is the fields of blue borage. With the drop in price of oil seed rape, borage is a good choice as a break crop for farmers who harvest it for its seed. The seeds are crushed and the oil extracted and used in pharmaceuticals, baby foods and cosmetics as farmer Hugh Pegrum told Ken Crowther.
Hill Farm Oils in Heveningham in Suffolk are running a trial of growing rapeseed for eating not just for the production of oil. An area of field has been left so where they plan to pick the ‘broccoli’ head with stalk and offer them to restaurants to see what they think. Sam Fairs explained it all to Ken Crowther.