麻豆社

Ruth Sanderson meets Julia and David Bridger at Keyneston Mill in Dorset who make perfume with home-grown plants and flowers. The Bridgers were inspired to start a British perfume brand after visiting Grasse in France. They鈥檝e turned Keyneston Mill, a 50-acre estate on the River Stour in Dorset, into the country鈥檚 largest botanical garden dedicated to aromatic and scented plants.

All the key ingredients of the perfumes are grown and distilled on-site to make the essential oils. The oils are then sent to a perfumer in France who helps the Bridgers make a range of fragrances. They experiment with plants not immediately associated with perfumery like yarrow and hyssop, and through trial and error they鈥檝e also learnt to grow foreign ones, like vetiver, a native Indian grass. We hear about how the Bridgers started a perfume business from scratch and developed their unique signature scents from their Dorset-grown crops.

Producer: Sophie Anton