Seabanks Oil
OUR STORY

Hello. I’m Karen Park and I’m originally from Galloway in South West Scotland. I moved to Northumberland in 2010 when I married my husband David, an arable farmer. Prior to moving East I was a solicitor but food has always played a central part of my life (and it’s in my genes – my mum taught Home Economics and my dad is a farmer) so it’s not surprising I’ve ended up here.
It was a very happy coincidence which led me into rapeseed oil production. In 2016 the founders of a local rapeseed oil company – Baste & Bray – approached my husband asking if he would supply them with rapeseed, which he did. Four years later I ended up taking over the business and in 2021 I launched Seabanks as I wanted a brand with a connection to the farm.
We live on the farm with our two young children.
The farm lies between Warkworth with its medieval Castle and Alnmouth a picture-perfect village with expansive golden beaches (pictured below).
Generations of the Park family have farmed on this area of coastal plain and we want to ensure that future generations of the family can enjoy farming it too which is one reason why in 2015 we joined LEAF Marque a leading global assurance scheme recognising more sustainable farming practices. Each year we go through a rigorous audit looking at all aspects of farming from soil health, carbon emissions, water usage and much more. We believe what we do enriches our tiny section of Northumberland.

WORKING WITH NATURE

The field known as Seabanks lies into a stunning stretch of coastline which is protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The dunes at Buston are home to a diverse range of grasses, plants, butterflies and moths and we try to extend this biodiversity into the farm.
The farm works closely with an Environmental Adviser and has undertaken a number of initiatives including hedge reinstatement, tree-planting, floristically-enhanced field margins and, to help with the hunger gap facing our bees, rotational phacelia.
Over the past decade we’ve been fortunate to have an apiary on each of our farms and I’ve recently taken up the hobby. A recent bee count at one of the apiaries estimated we have 300,000 bees enjoying the rapeseed, phacelia, vetch and bean crops.
 The honey produced when the hives are located close to the phacelia is amazing. We grow winter bird food in our field margins – sunflowers as far as the eye can see and very pretty Ox-eye daisies.

ABOUT – THE OIL MAKING PROCESS

There’s nothing quick about producing cold-pressed rapeseed oil. As farmers, every crop we plant is a gamble – will it germinate, will we get the right weather to enable growth, will it be attacked by insects or feathered-friends, will it ripen, will we get a decent weather window to harvest it?
We plant the crop in early August, using seeds that we have harvested from the previous year’s crop (known as home-save). The plant is through the ground within a week and it is looked after until harvested twelve and a half months later in August.

As soon as the crop is ready and moisture levels are within a tolerable range the combine harvesters set to work. Below is some footage taken from Harvest 2021.

Once the combines have done their bit, we set about ‘dressing’ the rapeseed which means we separate all the chaff from the crop which leaves just the little black seeds.

The seeds are then slowly pressed in small batches and the oil is left to settle before we gently filter it to remove any impurities. No heat or chemicals are used in the process just a rudimentary metal screw. We then bottle it by hand. The whole process is done on the farm which we feel helps with traceability and quality control.
The bi-product from the pressing, known as the cake, has tremendous nutritional value and this is sold to our friends at Morwick Dairy to feed their herd of award-winning cows to make the best ice-cream.