Commercial Growers 07 December 2018

We meet Maria Scholten & Poyntzfield Herb Nursery in Scotland

Where did your passion for seed start? Gardening on the Canadian prairies for a while under semi-arid conditions, my biodynamically trained farmer friend Ginie would recommend biological locally produced seeds because of their strength.  That was one of the first occasions I started thinking about seed and ‘local adaptation inside a seed’. The Canadian BAFTA […]

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Commercial Growers 03 June 2021

‘Make Room for Seed’ webinar – recording now available!

At the end of May, we held our ‘Make Room for Seed: Seed Production in Market Gardens’ webinar. Market gardeners and commercial growers hold a vital part in developing our seed sovereignty here in the UK both in terms of variety and quantity of locally-produced seed. However, one of the biggest concerns from commercial growers […]

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Brewing 07 April 2022

Sign the petition, Stop Patents on Seeds!

The team of the Seed Sovereignty Programme UK and Ireland are supporting this No Patents on Seeds campaign and are encouraging all our seed saving networks, friends and supporters to sign this petition. Even though the UK is no longer in the European Union it is still under the jurisdiction of the European Patent office. […]

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Commercial Growers 06 December 2018

An interview with Ellen Rignell at Trill Farm, Devon

Where did your passion for seed start? I became interested in seed during my traineeship at Trill Farm Garden. We grew a crop of beetroot seed for HSL during my first year at Trill and I really enjoyed seeing how a biennial crop transforms from a familiar vegetable to flowering shoots. I then went on […]

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Commercial Growers 17 June 2021

A Seed-Saving Year at Leen Organics – May

In this month’s installment Jason ponders purslane, battles bog mint, and plants a pack of pumpkins in his polytunnel for protection from pernicious possibilities.   It’s the end of April and there is great excitement as the first seed crop of the year, Purslane/Claytonia, comes in. This is where the learning goes up a notch […]

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Commercial Growers 11 April 2022

‘So You Want to Start a Seed Coop?’ Week 2 – Records and Legalities

In this week’s instalment of ‘So You Want to Start a Seed Coop?’, our Wales Coordinator Katie Hastings talks us through the ins and outs of the Record-keeping and Legalities behind selling seed collectively…   Selling seed can seem like a minefield of legislation, but this is not impenetrable. The first thing we did at […]

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