Clare on her green business idea...
"It was the linseed itself that inspired me. I did some research and realised the whole seed ground down was the most fantastic food.
"After using the ground linseed and trying to develop recipes, I knew the best place to start selling the product was at the farmers market, a great retail spot to go to when you’re short of money.
After using the ground linseed for a while and trying to develop recipes, I knew the best place to start selling something when you’re short of money is the farmers market
"I took the ground linseed to the market but it didn’t look very appetising, so I made a sort of flapjack with it, which we call flaxjacks. We found people were more interested in the flaxjacks than they were in the linseed powder, and from there on in the interest in the flaxjacks has grown considerably."
On business financing...
"I pulled it up by its own bootlaces. I literally went out to the farmers market, earned money to live and pay the mortgage, with any extra profit I would buy more equipment for the business.
"The farmer of Flax Farm was a friend of a friend, he owned the land and he used to grow a bit of linseed himself. I teamed up with the farmer and we’ve been in partnership ever since."
On how her business is environmentally friendly...
"We’re growing our linseed in traditional fields, the same fields and hedgerows that have been there for hundred of years. So we’re supporting British wildlife and our local environment. It’s absolutely brilliant.
"On a bigger scale, linseed is a wonderful source of omega-3, and the popular belief that fish oils are better is just not true! We provide a local solution by using linseed.
"We don’t go more then 30 miles to market so we’re not bringing fish oil and linseed in from the other side of the world. It’s a local produce sold to local customers – it doesn’t get much better then that."
