Sunday 4 March 2012

Seedy Sunday

As you can probably tell, the obsession with seeds is not likely to go away any time soon. We already have seeds everywhere in trays in the house and our little polytunnel, and now there's going to be a whole lot more! The reason? We were at our first sale of the year, a seed swap at Foxton Village Hall, near Market Harborough, today. It was the first time I'd been to a seed swap but we made sure to bring along plenty of herb seeds like angelica, hyssop, camphor, fennel to name but a few. The seed packets were all sorted and put into alphabetical order - which turned out to be a good idea, as once the doors opened there was a bit of a scrum as everyone headed straight for the boxes of seeds. There were packets people had got free with magazines, the heritage seed experts from Ryton, Coventry, and envelopes of seeds labelled with neat, fountain-pen copperplate handwriting from elderly gardeners. We had a great time, talking about herbs and wildflowers with people who came along. It was great to see so many people interested in herb gardens. Richard's a big fan of Harry Dodson, star of the 1980s BBC series The Victorian Kitchen Garden, and this year he wants to try to grow as many heritage varieties as we can. And look at this little haul!
Cardoon from 1885
Cabbage from 1821
Salsify from 1860 Hopefully we can add these to the vegetable seedlings we'll be selling from the market stall alongside the herbs and soaps. I love the descriptions of the old varieties, too. "A newer variety which is positively the largest Tomato ever produced," sys the 'Oxheart Giant' label. "The skin is purplish scarlet. The individual Tomatoes weigh as much as a pound and a half each. Although not a heavy yielder - excellent flavour." Can't wait!

3 comments:

  1. ooooo what lovely hertitage seed finds. i love that program too:) the packages are gorgeous! I wish I lived where I could have gone to that seed swap! have a beautiful day xxx

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  2. Thank you! Yes we got quite a haul. I'm loving your Remembered Remedies project, too! I will have to see if I can come up with some x

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  3. Oh yes please do send me a post if you have time to craft one! that would be lovely xxx

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