Old Varieties

Celebrating and remembering old fruit and vegetable varieties

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Vegetable Varieties

Seed search in Wales

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
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

Heritage Seed Makes Comeback

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