|
Seed Sources: We Grow Our Seed Without
Any Chemicals
We are committed to sustainable
agriculture and sustainable living.
We try to think carefully about the impact of our lives on the planet:
So we don't use any chemicals for our growing,
and as policy, the business uses electricity generated from
the wind, sun and water,
and all our heating is by renewably coppiced wood. We don't fly, and
try to minimise our car use.
Most of our vegetable growing and weeding is by hand, with minimal machinery
use
- we have a small tractor for preparing the seedbeds at the start of each season.
Two thirds of our land are devoted to wildlife and woodland. This winter we will be planting 1600 trees.
Overall , our aim is that at the end of our lives, we will leave the
soil and ecosystems in a better condition than at the start.
Our Seed
We feel that seed we grow ourselves is produced to ethical
and environmental standards that far exceed the requirements of Organic
Certification.
But we're not actually Certified Organic, due to the
cost and bureaucracy involved.
We'd rather be out growing vegetables than filling in forms, to be honest.
As we haven't paid the fees for certification, we mustn't use the O-word
to describe our seed.
But we have labelled our farm-produced seed in the catalogue (see the
table below) and leave it to you to judge.
Seed from Others
We would prefer to grow all our own seed - but life
is not perfect,
and we cannot do this for all of the varieties, so we have to
find alternative sources.
Wherever possible we get it from other small growers or farming friends,
again people we know,
and who we trust to use no chemicals, and who we know see the soil as
a living organism that must be cared for.
But they are rarely Certified Organic - if someone is growing £30
worth of quinoa seed for us,
it just doesn’t make sense for them to pay hundreds for organic
certification.
Again, we have labelled these seed sources, so you can decide if you
trust our views on this.
If we have to buy in seed, we prefer to get certified organic seed from
a few commercial growers that we know and trust.
As a final alternative we source top-quality conventionally grown seed,
untreated with any fungicides or preservatives.
A few passionate gardeners produce seed for us too.
If you are an experienced vegetable grower & would like to join
our Seed Growers Network, get in touch .
Seed Source Codes
Many people would like to support small family farms or co-operatives
that farm in a responsible manner without the use of pesticides and
other agrochemicals. Big farms, like all big industries, are harder
on the environment.
To help you, we have labelled the catalogue so you can see where things
come from.
|
[OG1]
|
Grown by us without any chemicals whatsoever, but not 'Certified'
Organic.
|
|
[OG2]
|
Grown by a friend, another small farmer, seed saver,
or co-operative grower that we know and trust to use no chemicals
- but not 'Certified' Organic. |
|
[CO1]
|
Seed from another small farmer or cooperative
that we know to be Certified Organic |
|
[CO2]
|
Seed from a large commercial grower that we know
to be Certified Organic |
|
no code
|
Non-organic seed, free from postharvest chemical
coatings & treatments |
We don't have anything to do with treated (fungicide-coated), hybrid seed,
or genetically modified seed!
Seed Saving
All our seeds come with instructions on how to save pure seeds for
use in the following years. This is only possible because none are hybrids.
Seedsaving is a simple process that is vital if you want to be able
to carry on growing vegetables suitable for home growing rather than
those bred for commercial chemical farming.
While it may seem odd for us to encourage you to keep you own seed,
it is obvious to us that the world is in a perilous state as we enter
a period of rapid climate change just as we have lost all our traditional
vegetable varieties. We would prefer that you saved your own seed -
preserving this biodiversity for future generations is far more important
than us making big profits.
Bigger Packet Sizes
On a separate note, we have yet again increased packet sizes wherever
we have enough seed available. We are proud of our reputation for good
germination, so we do not want to keep seed from year to year - we'd
rather you had a generous portion. It seems that commercial seed packets
are getting smaller and smaller, and while it is silly to waste seed,
we try to give you as least as much as we would sow for our own family
use.
|
