Help harvest Sting’s Tuscan grapes olives for £200 a day (you pay him)

He has made millions from rock music and last year began renting out cottages on his Tuscan estate for £6,000 a week. Now the pop star Sting is inviting visitors to "roll up your sleeves" and help pick his olives and grapes - so long as they are prepared to pay for the privilege.

For a fee of €262 (£208) a day, the former lead singer of the Police - whose last world tour earned the group $358 million - is offering connoisseurs of good food and wine the chance of working alongside local labourers at his 900 acre property, Il Palagio, near Florence.

Well-heeled would-be pickers are promised the opportunity to experience "succulent grapes and luscious wines, tart olives, green rolling hills, warm autumn sunshine, Cypress trees like tall sentries and the adventure and excitement of being part of the annual vendemmia, the traditional October grape and November olive harvests respected by generations of Tuscan farmers."

The offer from the 62–year–old Newcastle–born musician reflects his continued drive to turn Il Palagio, a 16th century estate near Florence that was in a state of abandonment when he bought it in 1999, into a going economic concern. It is now established as an active farm that produces honey, olive oil and so-called "biodynamic" wine.

Production at the estate is so prolific that Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, have opened a farm shop selling oil, wine, vegetables, fruit and salami, and are moving into direct mailing of its produce. On Wednesday TODAY, Sting is expected to join customers at the shop to help them sample this autumn's produce.

Sting has described picking the product of his estate as "therapeutic" and his sales pitch invites custoimer to "Roll up your sleeves and join the grape or olive harvest in the field of dreams at Il Palagio".

The estate boasts a large swimming pool, wooded lakes, a five-acre kitchen garden and bee hives, as well as six cottages that can be rented by the week.

Now, visitors will also fork out to go picking, although the estate said the day rate will secure them more than just an empty basket and instructions to fill it.

"Start the day with a picnic on the expansive lawn and a briefing from the estate manager to help you understand your work as a farmer-for-a-day: learn about the soil, the vines and trees, and techniques for harvesting," the statement says.

At the end of the day pickers will be invited to taste the estate's wine - including a £12.50 Sangiovese-based red called Message in a Bottle, which offers "a complex aroma of cherries, wild blackberries and spices".