Dry snowdrop bulbs used to be sold in the autumn. In recent years the practice is to sell them flowering, 'in the green'. I can't tell you Claire's new idea.

Potatoes from the estate are sold here to visitors, packaged in attractive pre-printed brown bags (name of estate + "tatties") and left in piles between the plant shop and the tea room. Sold not just by weight, but by aesthetics and association, visitors buy a piece of the place of the estate.

Pigs here rip up the ivy and provide an attraction for visitors, young and old. Jobs for wwoofers (volunteers) like me, too, running after piglets, trying to catch and sex them. Think meat comes into it too, somewhere. But back to the point: on the path between the walled garden and the area the pigs inhabit, is a large cage. Inside it, potatoes. A sign advertises for people to throw them to the pigs, that it is okay to do so. A note and a small box suggest that visitors might donate some money, to pay the farmer, for the potatoes. Apparently, people give more for potatoes this way, than they do buying to eat them themselves.