Celebrating St. David’s Day with Blas y Tir

A sign of the springtime, the daffodil is representative of brighter days to come! Synonymous with the patron saint of Wales, St. David, daffodils are symbolic of Welsh pride and culture.

As part of our St. David’s Day celebrations at Bluestone, we commissioned a beautiful arch filled with the flower of Wales handpicked in Pembrokeshire, to be showcased in our Serendome.

To see this journey through we visited one of the daffodil fields Blas y Tir had been picking to provide us with the daffodils for our St David’s Day piece for a chat with the team…

Peeping over the hills through the Pembrokeshire countryside sat a field with rows upon rows of budding and blooming daffodils.

Pickers hard at work, bundling and bunching the flowers to be packed up and delivered, they weaved through the crop. The field swept down into a tree‐filled valley, beyond which you could see the waves crashing against the cliffs around Solva.

Most striking though was the bright golden and green colours of the daffodil field. Interspersed were buds yet to bloom that were primed for picking, with daffodils in full colour.

Showing us round the fields and taking the time to chat with us about Blas y Tir were Marketing Manager, Clare Stansfield, and Head of Field Operations, John Addams‐Williams.

“Our roots have been set in the Pembrokeshire countryside for many years.” – Clare Stansfield, Marketing Manager.

Launched by Puffin Produce in 2011, Blas y Tir’s mission is to supply Wales with great Welsh produce. Whether that’s potatoes, broccolis, leeks or other fresh veg for your dinner, or bright daffodils for your home and garden!

To ensure the highest quality produce, Blas y Tir farm on a crop rotation that ensures each harvest receives the love and care it needs, with their daffodils ready to harvest around winter’s end.

“Daffodils are delivered to Welsh stores the following day, almost immediately after harvest. Freshness at it’s heart.” – John Addams‐Williams, Head of Field
Operations

Underpinning this work are three core values that Blas y Tir aims to uphold:

1. Working together to ensure that consumers are provided with the highest quality of produce all year round.

2. Doing the right thing so farmers and growers feel supported and have the knowledge and skills to be successful. Supporting each other throughout all aspects of the company and the process, so when one person does well, everyone does well!

3. Working towards and maintaining a sustainable future, so that the land that provides its spectacular produce can remain healthy and do so for years to come.

“The biodiversity we have in our cropping and the systems we have in our environment means we can farm in a much more sustainable way.” – John Addams‐Williams, Head of Field Operations.

To make sure this sustainable way of working, and living, is maintained for the now and for the future, Blas y Tir undertakes several initiatives.

A member of the Coulthard agreement, an initiative undertaken by numerous organisations across the food system with the goal of driving down waste.

They are users of the Cool Farm Tool, in order to measure and manage greenhouse gas, water and the biodiversity of their sites in order to make informed and responsible environmental decisions.

Commitments to source 95% of energy from renewable sources as well as reduce as much waste as possible in the production process means the lands farmed are looked after and cared for so that they can supply food for generations to come.

At Bluestone, we share these values as we work towards a free range and sustainable future. Working with people who want to celebrate and take care of the land around us is so important, as we look to highlight the amazing things about Pembrokeshire, but also ensure that what it provides can be enjoyed for years to come.

The daffodils farmed by Blas y Tir that are showcased at Bluestone, are a perfect representation of the celebration born from collaboration of our land!