Heritage French Beans

I’ve just had an early Christmas present – my order from Garden Organic‘s Heritage Seed Library.

The Heritage Seed Library is a collection of vegetable seed varieties that are not generally available. Some are varieties that were dropped from seed catalogues, others are heirloom varieties that have been saved by generations of farmers or gardeners and others are what are known as landrace varieties, adapted to specific growing conditions.

The Heritage Seed Library (HSL) currently holds about 800 varieties and every year around 150 of these are included in the Heritage Seed Library Seed Catalogue. Members of the Heritage Seed Library (£18 per year for Garden Organic members) can choose six free packets of seeds from the catalogue, which is sent out in early December. They can also choose to receive a seventh “lucky dip” variety.

My choices this year were Carrot “Red Elephant” (a 19th Century Australian heirloom variety described as fast growing, large and tasty), Beetroot “Avon Early” (an early, round rooted variety developed at the National Vegetable Research Station at Wellesbourne), Kale “Shetland” (from organic crofters Tommy & Mary Ibster of Burland, near Scalloway on Shetland), Lettuce “Bunyard’s Matchless” (an open-hearted cos lettuce with a distinctive nutty flavour), Tomato “Aranyalma” (a 1950s German variety of yellow tomato with a Hungarian name meaning “Golden Apple”) and Pea “Eat All” (a tall mangetout variety saved by growers from Halesworth in Suffolk, described as “hardy, vigorous, tasty”).

I will save seed from the lettuce, tomato and pea and perhaps the carrots. On my allotment I can’t guarantee that kale and beetroot won’t cross with other people’s plants, but at least I’ll be able to grow the varieties for a few years.

It’s well worth joining the Heritage Seed Library for the chance to grow unusual and lovely varieties of vegetables.

Over the years I have grown and saved seed from French Beans (as in the picture above), Broad Beans, Peas, Lettuces and Tomatoes, plus more unusual crops such as Achocha. Highlights have been some lovely, tasty varieties of tomatoes of various shapes, colours and sizes, and some wonderful tall Victorian varieties of peas, with the sweetest of flavours.

EU Seed Laws favour large multinational seed companies and make it illegal to sell unregistered varieties of seed, hence the need to join the seed library, rather than pay per packet. Seed registration costs about £3000 per variety, making it uneconomic to register seed that is useful to gardeners but not large scale farmers, such as tall varieties of peas that are very productive and tasty but need to be grown up supports.

Although seeds can be stored in seed banks, the best way of ensuring the survival of unusual varieties and protecting the genetic diversity of our vegetable seeds is to grow them. This is a very important reason to grow heritage seeds and support the Heritage Seed Library.