In 2019 we had a fire on the farm which took out 95% of everything I had worked for including 3 of my wife's horses. 

I had to stay strong for my family, but I couldn't handle it and over the next 3 years went into a downwards spiral financial ruin and depression. 

I was insured but I couldn't deal with it on top of the day to day running of the farm.

Then Covid happened. 

My employees were furloughed but because of the fire in the previous year my business made a loss so the government assumed I would make a loss again in the following year and I couldn't claim any help from the government. They were right. I made losses of £270,000 over 3 years until I was on the brink of bankruptcy. 

I should of packed up and got a normal job, but I couldn't. Over the next 3 years I have steadily re-built the business back up to where it is now with the help of Social Media and selling my produce direct to the consumer.

​Peonies

It started in 2000 when I moved to a Council Farm in Wisbech St Mary and met Barry. 

Barry had 2 acres of peonies in which he had made a living from these 2 acres for the last 40 years. 

The hours were long and it was physically hard work. But it never felt like work.

Growing peonies unlike a lot of crops requires very little machines and you can pretty much get away with a spade, a hoe and a penknife.

Break times were the best as we used to park up on a bushel box and a jammie wagon wheel.

We became good friends and as a 21 year old, I worked for him for 8 years until he sadly past away. 

He taught me everything he knew about peonies and that was it I was obsessed with these magical plants. 

I have grown my acreage up to 7 acres now as they cost a lot to establish and have to wait 3 years before you can sell any flowers.

I thought my business was safe. 

Lockdown 2020 hit many businesses including fellow growers which had to dump millions of stems of flowers and florists and retailers were also hit equally. 

Instead of throwing my entire crop on the muck heap, we decided to fill my house up and make a load of TikToks and then gave them away for FREE to anyone who wanted to pick them up.

I used to be a very shy and proud person who doesn't like to be a pushy salesman but selling on social media has helped me talk to people more and be more confident in what I do. Communicating with others has also taught me there is nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it, helping people makes them feel good and in the long run you can return the favour.

Peony season is very short but as a Peony Grower, I control everything from growing the crop, how they are stored, packaged and feel I am in a good position to get them to you as fresh as possible. 

We have 8 different varieties in which 70% of our crop may have to be picked in 3 days if its hot. 

I have 24 hrs to pick them at the correct stage and get them in a cold store. 

I can store them in a fridge for up to a month but they are never as good as the day they are picked.

I like to pre-sell some of my crop as it helps buy in the packaging and sort the paperwork out as it can get very busy during peony season.

Peony Season is May to June in the Uk which can change within a week or more depending how cold the winter is.

Peonies can be very unpredictable so bear with us if something doesn't go right. I can solve most of my problems with more Peonies but only whilst I have them.

Apples

Apples at Willock Farm. I have 30.5 acres of orchards on the farm and they are split up into 2 sections. 

Traditional Ancient orchards which consist of 22 acres of 100 year old apples and plums with 28 different varieties on a range of different size rootstocks. 

I can't sell my apples as organic because I don't pay £600 per year to get them certified and although I use some chemicals on the arable land I don't use any sprays or fertilizers in my orchards.

These orchards aren't commercially viable anymore and they are managed more for wildlife than for fruit. 

In the past I was Certified under 'Organic Farmers and Grower' and even made my own organic apple juice. 

But the legislation was too expensive and some years the orchard had no fruit so I used to lose money so stopped paying for the certification although the orchards remain unsprayed.

Some of the trees are very old and it costs me more money to pick the apples than what I can sell them for so I just let them fall on the floor. 

In 2024 I had a pick your apple day which was very successful, unfortunately there isn't as many apples as last year and the sales have been good so I won't be doing another one. 

I also have another orchard 'The Regional Collection'. This consists of 250 different varieties of apples, pears, plums and cherries. The cultivars are ones that orginated from the 7 counties from the East of England. Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. 

I only have 2 trees of each variety and again I do not spray or fertiliser these orchards, but they are undergrazed with minature horses and sheep.

Some varieties don't look very appetising or keep very long but you can taste the difference from what you can buy in the supermarkets. 

Please ask to be added to my 2025 apple sales waiting list if you are interested.

I am no longer a Christmas tree Grower

Christmas trees were grown as a way to pay more Rent to my landlord - Cambridgeshire County Council who had just increased the rent by £10,000 in one year. I originally grew grass on some of my worst land as it doesn't grow crops very well and gets flooded most years. 

I would have be losing £40 per acre every year if I continued to grow grass. 

I ploughed 2.5 acres of land up and planted small Nordmann Fir Christmas saplings. About 4500 of them. 

At the time the supplier said they would grow 1 ft per year and that they would buy them back of me for £20 each in 6 years time. 

Wow, I thought £60,000 in six years time. All my problems would be solved. 

4 years past and 50% of my trees died due to a drought and the remaining ones had only grew a couple of foot at best. 

I relentlessly carried on and planted the gaps and added another 1500 thinking it will all come good if I carry on working hard.

My Christmas trees got overgrown and grew to around 10-12ft, I don't have many good ones left and there aren't many around 6ft. The ones that remain have parts missing or gaps in the top because I did't manage them properly. 

I started selling them for wreath making and advertised them on my social media accounts. I chopped them up and dispatch them all over the UK. 

I sold them as trees, in 9 kg cardboard boxes or Builders Bulk Bags. 

I sold them all and on 29th November 2025, I sold the last of my trees and sold over thousand trees in 2 weeks. 

If you are a Christmas tree grower and you would like help doing the same, Send me your details and I will post them on my website, as my customers still need foliage and in this growing market of wreath making you could soon be selling your produce direct to the consumer. 

Farming

There are many things that can't be controlled in farming and results will be mostly affected with what hasn't happened yet more than what happened yesterday. ​​

It doesn't matter how hard you work or how much you don't want something to happen, Mother Nature is a force that should be respected. Don't fight it, find another way.

As well as my old orchards that I don't use any sprays or fertilisers on, I farm approx. 450 acres of land with wheat, sugar beet and grassland but rarely make much profit from this land and spend up to £100,000 on fertilisers and chemicals in order to maximise the yield from these acres. 

I have reached a time in my life where I want to know whether land can be farmed with no agro-chemicals and still produce enough food to feed the entire world whilst maintaining a level of income for the farmer.

Can I feed one person for one year with one acre. This year I will be farming as if my life depends on it, I want to produce enough food from one acre of land for me to live off next year. Making a change in farming is scary and takes time. Everything costs so much money and there is no guarantee that it will work. 

If it works, I plan to scale my farming systems to 100 acres to feed 100 people to see if my techniques can be scalable. 

Please follow me on my socials to see what goes wrong and what works. 

Thanks for talking the time in reading my story. If you want to receive my 'Idiots guide to growing Peonies' for FREE please email me on Willock.farm@gmail.com