One October afternoon, we set the places for a feast. Enamel plates punctuated a long table, under borrowed festoon lights strung from the rafters. Wind whistled off of the Irish sea. At first glance, it may have appeared a standard farm to fork meal, a wholesome sharing of local produce and company. But this feast […]
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Dylai bwyta’r ceirch yr ydych wedi tyfu bod yn beth hawdd I’w wneud / Eating the oats you have grown should be a simple thing to do. Katie Hastings, Gaia Seed Sovereignty Programme Coordinator for Wales, shares the story – and mystery – of the great Oats of Wales. When our Llafur Ni (Our Grains) […]
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Watch Gaia’s latest film – Llafur Ni (Our Grains)– about a farmer’s 20-year quest to find and revive the Welsh black oats his grandfather once grew. Welsh organic farmer Gerald Miles has been on an epic quest to rediscover the rare black oats his grandfather once grew in Pembrokeshire fields overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. For […]
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Reviving Rare Oats, Spreading Bere Barley and (Re)Developing the Machinery to Process Them At the start of February, as the snow fell and the sky brooded, the grain growers of our Welsh and Scottish networks grabbed a coffee, signed on to Zoom, and settled in for a long day of talking oats, bere barley […]
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Today we are delighted to announce that the Hwb Hadau Cymru/Wales Seed Hub has launched! The Hub is a cooperative of growers producing seed on Welsh farms using agroecological practices. They aim to grow open-pollinated (OP) varieties that are not widely available elsewhere and grow well in the Welsh climate. The Wales Seed Hub is […]
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The Organic Growers Alliance is a network of growers, farmers and horticulturalists. This article by Katie Hastings was originally published in their Organic Grower No 55 Summer 2021 Newsletter. https://organicgrowersalliance.co.uk/ The journey from producing your first seed crop to selling it is not so much a straight road as a labyrinth. While growing […]
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