Wednesday 21 December 2011

A little part of a big picture....


So today I took delivery of the results of one of the Seed Swap Circles that I am a contributor to.  This is year 2 of this particular circle; which is run through a popular allotment forum. 

72 bags of seed I received, the list is below. 

A decent photo will follow, once I've found the lead! For now though, the image was taken on my blackberry....

Now, I've not knowingly met any of the people in this community; and I know I've swapped with them informally, and perhaps some of the seeds that were shared were grown from seeds that I originally swapped with them, or from last year's circle. But the bigger picture here is that we are saving and swapping from seeds from all over the place, from HSL, from Real Seeds, from friends, family and overseas; and we are helping to save a little piece of our history in these lovely seeds. 

It's blooming marvelous, and I am hoping that the participant of my own circles will feel the same once their seeds are sent out in the New Year. 

And a very timely delivery, with tomorrow being the solstice, I'm going to get the Babington Leeks and Egyptian Walking Onions into soil first thing tomorrow. 

If you have never saved seeds, or if you do save and are not part of a circle, I heartily recommend it. Have a look at our Seed Saving in Schools document which may give you some ideas as to how to save your own seed and activities to get people interested in saving their own seeds....oh, and it also saves a fortune each year as 72 varieties from a seed catalogue would be about, well, probably about £140.

Here is the list:

Achocha Lady’s Slipper (cyclanthera pedata)
Alliums
Babington Leek (allium ampeloprasum babingtonii)                     
Stamme onions
Egyptian Walking onion Catawissa allium cepa proliferum


Broad Beans
Vitelotte 
Unknown Variety

French Beans
Major Cooke 
Bonne Bouche
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Succotash
Magpie
Madeira Maroon
Edamame
Swedish One Dot
Runner beans
Mrs Connell’s Black 


Corn
Painted Mountain

Herb
Borage
Dill 
Quillquiña = Bolivian Coriander
Rocket
Turkish Rocket (Bunias orientalis).
Lovage
Flat Leaved Parsley
Sorrel Belleville


Kale 
Siberian Kale
Nero di Toscana aka Black Kale

Lettuce
Grandpa Admire’s
Pommee Brune d’Hiver
Pink

Parsnip
Avon Resistor

Peas and Mangetout
Golden Sweet mangetout 
King Tut/Pran’s Pea 
Magnum Bonum
Paula
Salmon-Flowered Pea 
Skånsk Märgärt
Stephen’s Pea 
Suttons Purple Podded 

Pepper, Chilli
Alberto’s Locoto, a Rocoto pepper
Chilli de Cayenne 
Small Unnamed Chilli 
Anaheim Chilli

Pepper, Sweet
Napier Pointy Red

 Pumpkin/Squash
 Hungarian Zucchini

Georgia Candy Rooster Squash 
Waltham - butter nut squash
Zapallito Squash 

   
Tomato
Alpatieva 905A
Beijing Yellow
Delhi
Demidov
Dwarf Mr Snow  
Early Tanana
Eli
Green Bell Pepper
He-man rootstock,
Koralik 
Korol Rannikh  
Latah
Michael Pollan
Monkeys Ass
Plumpton King
Prairie Fire 
Yellow Out Red In
Red Pear
Slovienian Black
Tasmanian Chocolate Dwarf
T.C. Jones 
Vova Yellow 

True Potato Seed
Blue Belle TPS                            

Spring Cabbage Durham Early

Tzimbalo Solanum Caripense

Sweet Peas [mainly pink]
Helianthus Sungold

Here is the photo:
 and I'm off now, to prepare some seed trays for tomorrow. 

Happy Winter Solstice to you all for tomorrow, I'll have my head down sowing seeds and especially planting Garlic.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I wish that I had read this before putting all of the 72 items into an excel spreadsheet that has taken me the best part of 3 hours to input.

Zazen999 said...

I cut and pasted from the document on the website. I did think about retyping but that was never going to happen.

Robert Brenchley said...

Hopefully mine will be with me tomorrow. I can't wait!