Seed Sovereignty

The Exeter Seed Bank is a new initiative seeking to complement other growing/gardening groups in the city. Our aim is to share knowledge about seed saving, an ancient craft that is reviving in the face of our diminishing seed diversity. We want to create a seed bank that works for our area’s soils and in consideration of other issues such as biodiversity loss and climate change. We hope to have community events in the future that follow the seed calendar and use the arts and heritage to creatively engage people with the natural world and to encourage environmental stewardship.

We are an award winning, family run business with a reputation for sourcing the finest selection of organic and biodynamic produce. Our fantastic range of seasonal, local, and speciality produce attracts regular customers from across the region, and is much loved within the community we serve.

Seeds of Hope is a dream seed sown a couple of years ago. This year with huge increase in demand for locally adapted, open-pollinated seed seems the perfect time to launch membership of a seed library. My name's Charlie Gray and I've been saving seed at Horton Community Farm in Bradford for many years now. The seed library will collate seed saved at Horton Community Farm and by others locally. It will also coordinate unused seeds and make them available to members.

Freeman Bio-dynamic Garden was established in April 2014 at High Riggs in Stannington. The 9 acre site consists of a 3 acre market garden, a 3 acre mixed woodland and a 3 acre meadow. It has been set up as a social enterprise to provide learning opportunities for Freeman College students and fresh vegetables for the Freeman College kitchens, the Fusion Cafe, the Sheffield community and for our vegetable box scheme.

We are an independent family-run company, based in Moreton-in-Marsh, that now works with over 15,000 farmers across the UK, supplying everything from green manures, cover crops and herbal leys to dual purpose long term leys and silage leys. Our experience and in-depth knowledge has meant that we are often approached to advise landowners and organisations, from the National Trust to water authorities and environmental organisations, and are increasingly involved in research and educational projects with universities and colleges.

Airfield is a 38 acre farm and gardens located in the suburbs of Dublin city. This charitable trust has the mission “to inspire and enable people to make better food choices”. The gardens and farm play a key role in delivering this mission. The gardens are approximately 6 acres in size. They are managed organically with the 2 acre food garden certified by the Irish Organic Association. Airfield have been seed guardians for Irish seed savers since 2018 and continue to grow and supply organic vegetable and flower seed.

We are a small market garden in West Dorset focused on growing the most delicious and nutritious vegetables that we can.

Our growing practices are considerate of the land that we tend, and we are driven by a desire to produce healthy vegetables, in bountiful quantities, for as many people as possible.

Whippletree Farm is a small, mixed farm on the edge of Dartmoor, just outside of Bridford in the Teign Valley.

Growing organic seeds for Brown Envelope seeds

"We love to create beautiful, wildlife friendly planting schemes and gardens, whether purely ornamental or with edible elements. We are committed to gardening in an organic, sustainable way. Creating gardens which give year round interest, habitat for wildlife and ideally other yields such as food, fuel and natural craft materials."

A vegetable seed company for gardeners, by gardeners. Stocking the best varieties of vegetable seeds selected by expert organic grower Klaus Laitenberger, Green Vegetable Seeds.

Down Farm is a social enterprise. We are an organic market garden and community hub situated just outside of Winkleigh, North Devon. We grow fantastic vegetables, salads, herbs & fruits, using only hand tools. Our aim is to grow produce that benefits us, our wildlife the soil and our community.

We strongly believe in following the principles of organic growing.  Because putting the time and care into the quality of the soil is as important as the flowers the soil supports. And so our flowers are grown seasonally when they naturally want to flower.  They are not grown in heated tunnels or fed anything other than natural, organic seaweed based plant food, approved by the Soil Association.

Caerhys Organic Farm is on the picturesque Pembrokeshire Coast. We are just 1/2 mile from the coast and approx. 4 miles from St.David's. We are now diversifying to alternative enterprises; a welsh black suckler herd for Organic Beef, Livery and stables, and Bed and Breakfast.

A cooperative of growers, working together to market, pack and distribute our seed. Wales Seed Hub produces seed grown on Welsh farms using agroecological practices. Our seed is open pollinated and carefully selected. We try to grow varieties that are not widely available elsewhere and grow well in the Welsh climate. This seed hub is being supported by the Seed Sovereignty Programme UK and Ireland as they forge the way in creating a new Welsh seed selling business.

Here at Seedsology we are passionate about Wildflowers and Meadows, so 4 years ago we set aside 3-acres of land and started building our meadow field. As well as the Wild flowers in our 3 acre Meadow field we also grow Cottage Garden Flowers too,  such as Cosmos, Cornflower, Stocks, Nigella, Marigolds, Gypsophila, Forget me nots, Larkspur and many more, all our seeds come from the Meadow and Cottage Garden here at Reed Point.

We’re a small farm on the outskirts of Frome, Somerset, producing vegetables, fruit and various other farm products for our local customers. We also offer a small number of camping spots and other activities for visitors.

Nestled in the heart of the Heligan Productive Gardens is a cool, dry storage shed where carefully labelled pots and jars display a bounty of seeds; all lovingly collected, dried and stored by the Heligan Gardening Team.

Seedy Sunday in Brighton and Hove is the UK’s biggest and longest-running community seed swap event. The event takes place on the first Sunday in February in Brighton and Hove.  At the heart of Seedy Sunday is the huge seed swap table where seeds are donated and swapped.

Incredible Vegetables is an experimental vegetable growing project and a research space dedicated to useful perennial edibles and future food crops and a perennial vegetable nursery set up and managed by Mandy Barber and Julien Skinner. The polyculture space includes a biodiverse mixture of perennials, self sowing annuals and plants for pollinators.

Stroud Community Seed Guardians are a group of local gardeners who grow and save seed across the Stroud District. Stroud Seed guardians celebrate locally adapted seed, seed diversity and growing without the use of chemicals. They enjoy connecting with community members, groups and schools to strengthen community bonds, resilience and spread knowledge of the importance of seed saving. They are continuing to develop the quality of our seeds, educate around seed saving techniques and feel it is important to clarify the importance of high-quality seed. They distribute saved seed at markets in Stroud in the Winter and early Spring as well as at events and workshops throughout the year.

Green Vegetable Seeds is a company for gardeners, by gardeners. Their seeds are selected by expert organic grower Klaus Laitenberger and can be purchased online too. Green Vegetable Seeds offers gardening courses too, and have produced several publications for gardeners and growers, and the specific Irish context.

One of the first UK companies to offer organic seeds, Tamar Organics started as a small organic market garden in 1994. Ever since then they have been encouraging people to grow organically for a healthier environment, improved soil and improved biodiversity. Tamar Organics is registered with the soil association, and all their vegetable, herb and flower seeds are organic. Their composts and fertilisers are all permitted for use in organic systems and their pest control is the most environmentally friendly available. The products in their rich online catalogue are shipped both nationally and internationally.

On the Black Isle peninsula on the east coast of the Scottish Highlands, surrounded by sea lochs, hills and mountains, Poyntzfield Herb Nursery have been growing herbs organically and biodynamically since 1976. They grow over 400  species/varieties in the nursery that originate from all over the world ,but include plants native to Scotland that have herbal properties. Seeds have been exported to Argentina, Canada, USA, all EU countries, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Canaries, Bosnia, Kenya, Korea, Zimbabwe, Brazil, India, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Home to the largest collection of culinary herbs in the UK Jekka's is an amazing resource for plant identification and a gastronomic delight for anyone interested in good food. Jekka's herbetum contains over 400 culinary herbs carefully planted in raised beds on Jekka's herb farm, enabling visitors to walk amongst them. All of their seeds are untreated and therefore can be used to grow plants organically. At Jekka's they also run master classes and offer online videos on seed sowing.

Skea Organics is a family run business based north of Dundee offering a remarkable selection of Speciality, Heritage and Organic seed potatoes, on their online shop the Potato House. They also grow and supply other high-quality organic root vegetables, mainly carrots, swede and parsnips.

The intention is for OURganic Gardens to become an outdoor green space focused on food, sustainability, and horticulture. We want to provide a standard of excellence in education , experience and training in the northwest of Donegal, giving tourists and the community a chance to learn new and old skills. Our aim is to provide all walks of the community with a sense of ‘connection’ to where our food comes from, to encourage them to become environmentally aware, and to live more self-sufficiently. Our educational packages would provide people with the knowledge they need to make responsible decisions about how they live their lives, while surrounded by the beauty and wonder of the natural landscape OURganic Gardens has to offer. We are at the beginning of our dream at OURganic Gardens and we look forward to you joining on our journey.

Established in 2013, True Harvest Seeds aims to conserve ALL of Ireland’s native seed-bearing wild plants by the secure storage of their seeds. Part of the collections are kept in perpetuity and part are available for suitable local restoration projects

In 2009 Jane and Tom founded Loaf Cookery School and Community Bakery in Birmingham. In 2018 they moved to Wales to begin Rye and Roses (Rhyg a Rhosod) a new micro-homestead and family bakery. Rye and Roses are looking to diversify into grain production and particularly looking to grow some of the rarer grain varieties falling out of production in Wales. They are currently growing wheat in the Dyfi Valley. Tom specialises in baking handmade sourdough bread, where possible using organic ingredients and locally milled flour. Jane grows ingredients on a small scale for Rye and Roses.

A completely free public resource, supported by Lampeter Permaculture  Group, Transition Llambed and Transition Llambed Development Trust. The library is open at the People's Market at Victoria Hall, every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month between 10am and 1pm. Members can borrow seed, grow and eat the vegetables and save their seeds at the end of the season to donate back to the library for others to then borrow.

Trill Farm is a small scale, organic market garden which grows vegetables for local restaurants. They save seed from around 40 different varieties, producing seed crops for the Real Seed Catalogue, for their own use in the garden, and for exchange through the South West Seed Savers Co-op.

We are an independent organic seed company, specializing in open-pollinated varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Our long term vision is to develop new crop varieties adapted to temperate organic growing conditions.

"Einion's Garden is a micro market garden. Established according to the permaculture principles of Earth care, People care and Fair shares, we are improving biodiversity and soil health whilst growing vegetables and fruit for a very local market. In an increasingly unpredictable climate we are learning how to adapt to extremes of weather and are part of a greater movement to building local resilient communities." Einion's garden have been saving seed for their own use for years and are now progressing to producing open pollinated seed for sale. Seed available for the 2018-2019 season: Plas Einion Kale, parentage Ragged Jack/ Red Russian kale. Low growing, excellent clubroot resistance, tolerance of very wet conditions, very hardy, sweet and tender leaves, makes delicious shoots in late spring. Vietnamese Mustard Mr Hong's, mild flavoured, large leaved, pale green with white ribs. Very slow to bolt, even under cover.

The South West Seed Savers Co-operative are a group of small scale, agroecological vegetable growers who have come together to exchange seed and share their knowledge and experience of seed production. A number of the group produce seed commercially for UK seed companies and others produce seed for exchange and on farm use. If you're a grower or seed business whose interested in linking up with SWSSC then please get in touch!

Daniel Blackburn runs his family farm where he keeps sheep and produces vegetables for sale in the surrounding area. Daniel has been producing seed for the Real Seed catalogue for several years. In the past he has grown large crops of pea seed and this year he is diversifying into courgette and pumpkin seed. Daniel finds seed production to be a useful income stream to the farm as well as something worth doing for the benefit of our local resilience.    

Blaenffos Permaculture Market Garden has been producing vegetables and fruit for sale to their local community for several years. They are producing seed for the Real Seeds catalogue and save their own varieties to ensure their own seed sovereignty.  

Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library (HSL) aims to conserve vegetable varieties that are not widely available. We are not a gene bank and all of our collection, once we have enough seed, will become available for our members to grow and enjoy. The collection consists of mainly European varieties, including:

• rare landrace varieties, which are adapted to specific growing conditions.
• heirloom varieties that have been saved over many generations. These are unique to the Heritage Seed Library catalogue.
• varieties that have been dropped from popular seed catalogues over the past decade. This occurs for a number of reasons; their lack of popularity with customers, their unsuitability for commercial scale production or simply the prohibitive cost of trialing and National Listing.

A private herb nursery called The Herbary. Not open to the public except on our special open days. They grow many different sorts of medicinal, aromatic and culinary herbs, using organic and peat-free compost, without the use of artificial fertilisers or pesticides. The land is certified as organic for seed production (vegetables, herbs and flowers) and they have further organic certification for the processing and marketing of organic seed. They have always been committed to safe and sustainable methods of cultivation.

Irish Seed Savers locate rare varieties of vegetables, soft fruit, flowers, grains, potatoes and apple trees and then conduct research on them in our gardens. They then select varieties which are hardy and suitable for the local climate. This process takes time patience and skill and then their subscribers, Friends of Seed Savers and the public are rewarded with tasty and productive varieties to grow at home. One of Irish Seed Savers Association’s main aims is to raise public awareness about the vulnerability of Irish agricultural biodiversity to schools and community groups through workshops. They encourage and facilitate liaisons with government departments, universities and gene banks worldwide. As environmental issues come more the forefront in all of our lives, the small efforts of many make a real difference.

You'll find no F1 hybrids or genetically modified seed here - just varieties that do really well and taste great when grown on a garden scale - a catalogue of real seeds for real gardeners wanting to grow proper vegetables. Because all are open-pollinated (non-hybrid) , you can even save your own vegetable seed for future years, using the instructions we supply. There's no need to buy new seed every year!

The Seed Cooperative is growing seed commercially as well as creating a hub for trainings, skill sharing and collaboration.