Vegetable gardeners in Wales are being urged to preserve their heirloom varieties and make them more widely available.

The Dyfi Valley Seed Savers in Wales are looking to allotment and garden vegetable growers, to help trace all the home grown Welsh vegetable varieties they can find. They  are especially interested in tomatoes resistant to blight, rocket that is slow to bolt and strong growing winter salads.

Tomato flower

Many varieties have been handed down through the generations and are not available on the open market.  These seeds are invaluable to local growers as they have adapted over the years to the climate and soil of the region.

Funding from a rural development agency has been granted to Dyfi Valley Seed Savers, to trial the vegetables they find at 10 selected sites throughout Powys.

Seeds discovered through the scheme will be redistributed through local seed swaps and also through the Heritage Seed Library run by Garden Organic in Coventry.

If you think you have something they might be interested in, The Dyfi Valley Seed Savers would love to hear from you.

Please get in touch with any information about the vegetable's history, growing, taste and appearance characteristics, or contact them for more information by e.mailing; Claire@dyfivalleyseedsavers.org.uk

More information

Dyfi Valley Seed Savers

Heritage Seed Library

GLASU - Supporting a sustainable future for the people of Powys

Earlier in the year we published an article about Carlin peas and Audrey from Lancashire decided she would have a go at growing some.

Carlin pea in flower

Shortly after Easter she planted a few Carlins which she had purchased from the grocer to eat.

The peas were planted in spring, just the same way as one would plant any other pea. The resultant 6 foot pea plants have just bloomed in the last week of June.

The Carlin pea flower is small and delicate, typical of the pea family, with a pale, almost translucent lilac upper (banner) petals and a rich wine or burgundy wings and keel.

The opposing leaves of the Carlin plant are almost heart shaped, unlike the oval shape of cultivated peas.

Deep veining is prominent in both the flower and the leaves.

Much like sweet peas, the Carlin pea does require something to grow up, as these plants in Lancashire have currently reached around 6 feet or more.

Audrey is going to keep us posted on their progress

The Carlin pea is a traditional drying pea which seems to date way back in the English medieval monasteries and was certainly used in Elizabethan times.

Carlins are associated with the North and Especially North East of England where they often eaten on Passion Sunday.  Legend has it, that they saved many Northumbrians from starvation during the Civil war of 1644.

Heritage Seed Library Carlin Seeds

Now classified as a heritage or Heirloom variety, Carlin or Maple Peas can still be obtained and grown from seed.

Planted and grown in much the same way as Sweet Peas, the plants can reach an average height of about six foot, bearing beautiful white and lilac flowers.

If given full sun and plenty of water, the crop quite prolifically.  The seeds can be used fresh or allowed to ripen and dried for storage.

Many heritage varieties of seed are not available for public sale due to licencing leglisaltion but these seeds are available to members of the Heritage Seed Library.

or from seed exchange websites.

An article in Horticulture Week points to changes that may lead to relaxation of the heritage seed rules.

EU rules currently state that if a variety is not on a national list, you can't sell it.  This list was set up with the commercial seed sector in mind but the amateur gardener became needlessly inconvenienced by this legislation. A seed variety costs around £1,500 to register at present.

Heritage, unregistered varieties are only able to be grown via seed swapping amongst enthusiasts and the varieties rely heavily on Seed Guardians who grow the plants specifically for their seed to preserve the variety and allow a selection of seed to be available for those interested.

Revived varieties of tomatoes, cabbages and lettuces could come onto the market in two or three years if  the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) relaxes the legislation.

Some vegetable varieties are grown for outstanding flavour or perfomance in a particular environment.  These may soon be available again with gardener's being able to grow varieties that their parents or grandparents favoured.

Read to full article in Horticulture Week.

A few specialist suppliers who offer heritage seed and plants

Over the last three years we have been growing heritage vegetables as well as more modern varieties and whilst we have not been conducting a scientific experiment, the outcome is interesting.

2009 Harvest

We trialled heritage varieties of Tomato (San Marzano Di Lampadina) and French Bean (Blauhilde).

Both varieties were grown under the same conditions as the modern varieties; Tomato (Gardener's delight) & French bean (Pantheon)

Firstly the French beans - The heritage variety (Blauhilde) really did struggle, with generally weaker plants succumbing very easily to slug damage and mildew.

Out of the total crop sown, around 70% succeeded to seedling stage but only 25% of the plants made it to cropping stage of which crops were generally poor.

Tomato San Marzano Di Lampadina did very well as seedlings (probably due to the lovely warm spring).

They produced quite strong plants with a fair crop of medium sized fruits.  However, the time taken to ripening seemed to exceed the amount of sunlight hours available in the North of England and fruits struggled to ripen.

A batch of Green tomato chutney put them to good use.

We have also grown other old varieties of vegetable including brassicas and shallots and in general, the results have been much the same with plants struggling through the wet summer and producing less yield with a constant fight against disease.

Although heritage varieties are worth growing for their different flavours and textures, we found that we have had to nurse them to production stage with a great deal of loss.

Worth mentioning, is the simple fact that our Cumbrian summers over the last three years have been rubbish, to say the least.  Extremely wet, dark and with very little strong sunlight.

We are interested to hear what other growers of heritage vegetables have experienced around Britain and we certainly still advocate growing the older varieties, although we do suggest researching the varieties well to see if they will be suited to prevailing conditions.