Our Crops
Fulfilling Speciality Market Needs Worldwide
For our main product, Abyssinian oil (Crambe abyssinica) we have built up a network of commercial and small scale farmers in different climatic regions to provide confidence in our supply chain to our international customers.
Our crops
As well as the Crambe oil we now have a wide range of seeds and oils coming through this system including Hemp, Amaranth, Borage, Echium, Camelina, Lunaria and Milk Thistle. From Africa we now have a range of community collected seed oils and we are building a network to identify new seed oils from these community projects. Many of these community projects are run and organized by women.
Through all of this we strive to provide new opportunities and choices for farmers and communities which are stable, sustainable and ethical. We provide long term commitment through our contracting system providing security for growers and customers.
We are able to offer confidential research and development for potential new products and ideas from growers, NGOs and customers providing unique opportunities to any of our partners.
What we offer
• Engage in sustainable business practices and have transparent cooperation with our partners.
• Produce high quality, high value speciality plant seed oils.
• To work towards stable pricing for both our farmers and our clients for the long term.
• Make sure our farmers are educated on the environmental impacts of their farming practices and encourage zero-tillage planting.
• Introduce new crops that help farmers have the option to diversify.
• Assist farmers with the agronomics of the crops they intend growing.
Products
- Borage
- Crambe Seeds
- Lunaria
- Camelina
- Echium
- Milk Thistle
Camelina
is an oil producing brassica crop similar to oilseed rape but with a high linolenic fatty acid content. Only nominal areas are cultivated currently. Spring sown types are primarily grown in climates like Ireland as there are no herbicides/fungicides registered for use, necessary for winter crop production.
Crambe
is a member of the crucifer family which includes crops such as canola, rapeseed, and tame mustard. Crambe will not cross-pollinate so there is no requirement for isolation. The plant is native to the Mediterranean region and has become naturalized with many other parts of the world.
Borage
is a plant. Its flowers and leaves, as well as the oil from its seeds are used as medicine. ... Borage oil is sometimes added to infant formula in small amounts to provide fatty acids needed to promote development of preterm infants. Borage flower and leaves are used for fever, cough, and depression.
Echium
crop nutrition. As echium is a small seeded crop, it benefits from sowing into a fine, firm seedbed to encourage rapid establishment. Sowing should occur from the end of March through to mid-May on light, dry soils with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5
Lunaria, or Honesty flowers, are also commonly called "Money Plants", because their prolific seed pods resemble coins. They are popular in home gardens and flowerbeds. ... After the seed pods and stems have turned golden and dried, they can be used in dried floral arrangements and last for extended periods of time.
Milk thistle
(Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertner, Asteraceae) is an annual or biennial that grows from 5 - 10 feet (1.5 - 3.0 m) tall, has large prickly-edged leaves covered with undulating white patches, and stems containing a milky juice. Typically, thistle-like, large, reddish-purple flower heads with sharp spines grow at the ends of flower stalks. The fruit is small, hard, shiny, and grey to black (an achene) with a silvery pappus or fluff.