SEEDS : Saving, Sharing and Sowing as an Act of Rebellion.

Seeds.

Seeds are life.

Seeds are the beginning. At the beginning seeds brought forward life and all manner of things appeared.

There are old stories of a tree in Africa which sprouted forth all the fruits of the Earth. oranges,, apples, mango, lime all on one tree. The location of the tree was hidden in Tortoise’s dream. By singing the song of the tree taught in the dream. Tortoise was able to find the tree. Once he found it everyone could see it. They all came the Villagers from all over to eat of the fruit. Tortoise then told them the rest of his dream. You must plant the seed you find inside each fruit. So they did and all the different fruit appeared everywhere. It’s time, we believe, to plant some more.

Saving seed as the villagers did in the story to plant. was something our grandparents and their grandparents knew about. They didn’t have to buy new seed or if they did it was to try new varieties, they saved the seed from the biggest healthiest plant and replanted that next Spring. In so doing season after season the plants grew stronger and produced more and more seed. This seed shared was plenty for the neighbours and their family too. Gardeners were developing strong genetic line in their seed, acclimatised to their region, conditions and soil. The more locally the seed has been bred in this way the more successful the crop.

Today much commercial seed you see in shops or online is F1. this is a seed which will be true to type eg as advertised and expected for the first season. Saving seed from these plants does not guarantee a stronger plant or even plants that appear alike. F1 has prevented gardeners from effective seed saving this way gardeners have to pay for new seeds every year of a limited amount of varieties. The varieties on offer are also often more suited to large scale monocrop production. Its frankly a scam. We want to be part of the growing number seed saving revolutionaries that save and share seed, we want you to be part of this too.

The only way to effectively become a seed saver is to sow open pollinated heirloom seed. The seeds our grandparents sowed. Under recent EU Law all seed must be registered and seed selling of no registered often heirloom varieties was illegal. Seed companies sprung up, offering membership to seed clubs then offering these old , diverse varieties. Often taking varieties from across the World and seed saving to create strong seed types that had adapted to U.K climates.

Why go to all this trouble?

Well for one thing there are so many delicious varieties of fruit and veg out there that you’ll never see in a Supermarket that you can grow and enjoy. Most importantly though because the present agricultural system is unsustainable. Monocrop culture and the chronic lack of diversity is creating a crisis. Lack of diversity has a huge ecological knock on effect on the insect pollinators,. excessive use of pesticides rather than using interplanting and mixed companion cropping depletes the soil and poisons the ecosystem around the plant. Our soil is exhausted, some estimates suggest only 30 years of growing time left. It is urgent that we become involved.

It’s not just becoming a seed saver. We are learning here too that its all about soil. That heirloom seed needs great soil. We are learning about composting, no dig gardening, friendly fungi. fascinating that there’s a huge interconnective web underground called the mycelium network. It is believed that through this network that vital nutrients are bought and shared to the plant roots and that it may even conduct electrical impulses between trees in a forest. No dig gardening allows this network to thrive . Traditionally gardeners dig their soil every year, digging over their patch. This destroys the mycelium and also invites weeds to come as a quick growing cover for the exposed soil.

How You can join in.

We are in the process of developing our project. We need to build composting bins, plant seeds, create new growing areas, planting trees to deepen our hedgerows, to encourage wildlife. We are saving seed and moving on from our first years success to build a seed library. We need volunteers onsite and seed savers to create seed circles so you can be involved where ever you are in the World.

There are some amazing seed companies out there.

Real seeds, an independent heritage seed company based in Wales. They produce wonderful varieties adapted to the U.K climate. We have bought from these guys for years . They have a great seed germination rate in our experience.

Vital seeds, an independent small seed company producing high quality seed. They also started running a great seed saving course this year. Highly recommended by us here.

The Heritage Seed Library, A members club where you get to choose a limited number of free very rare varieties each year. This is our first year joining the HSL and we’ve got some fabulous seed, including the Kent Blue pea which we’re really excited to be growing and saving this year.

The Seed Co-operative is a community owned seed company. You buy shares and become a member. Producers of great seeds.