On Sunday 1 February, hours before a huge snowstorm brought southern England to a standstill, I took a train from London to Brighton for the annual seed exchange in Hove. Seedy Sunday aims to promote biodiversity in kitchen gardens by encouraging veg growers to save the seed of unlisted heritage varieties and bring seeds along to swap with fellow gardeners.
Officially the sale of these seeds is illegal, as a TV reporter squeezed next to me at the long trestle tables, continually fluffing his lines (it was Sunday morning), was trying to explain to a cameraman being elbowed aside by crowds surging towards the best swaps before they were all swapped away.
Seedy Sunday gets around this by having people exchange rather than buy seeds. For those (like me) with no seeds to swap, a donation of 50p a packet is suggested. Despite the weather, the event was popular:
In addition to seed swapping, several seed companies had stalls selling reasonably-priced packets of heritage or other interesting seeds. Inevitably, I went in search of courgette seeds. This one is Goldena, a yellow courgette from the Czech Republic:
Onion sets were on sale (I bought Jet Set yellow onions) and seed potatoes (Skerry Blue, a maincrop, for me). I picked up Jerusalem artichokes from the main seed swap table – at 50p a bag – duly warned that not only do you have them for ever because the knobbly roots are hard to find at harvest time, but that they are better-known as ‘fartichokes’.
My mixture of purchases and ‘swaps’:
A seed/onion/potato/plant stall:
There were various workshops on offer and a long line of people waiting for wholesome organic hot food, both of which I eschewed for fish and chips, real ale, and the train back to the capital before we all got snowed in.
A fascinating way to acquire seeds. It will be interesting to see what the “unidentified and varied” runner beans produce!
What a great idea – I’ll have to see if there is such an event around here.
H – a seedy-fanatic! Looked like a wonderful event! Even though I don’t have a garden I can’t ‘do gardening stuff’ there…. it makes me very happy to see the enthusiasm folk have for keeping these varieties alive, before all our fruit and veg becomes like our hight streets….. full of limited, tasteless, vacuous ‘brands’…..
x
Looks like a perfect day out – especially the chips and real ale…loved the snow too!
[...] So far I’ve dug up at least 15 kilos of them, with a couple of plants still untouched in the ground! The roots taste like potato crossed with celeriac, with a hint of leek, and what Nigel Slater calls a slight “disinfectant note” in his latest book Tender, in a comprehensive section on artichokes (illustrated with a photo of a tornado, ha ha – see earlier post): [...]
[...] Charlotte, alongside varieties new to the plot: Shetland Black, chosen as it resembles my favourite Skerry Blue, which I haven’t been able to find for a couple of years; and Peach Bloom, which I’ve [...]