I haven’t seen official figures on production or acreage — I’m not even sure if they exist — but if internet buzz and celebrity hype is anything to go by we’ve clearly been going through a revolution in vegetable gardening during the past couple of years. Well, would you believe a resurgence of interest? Schools are certainly interested. Michelle Obama is, famously, interested. The next step will no doubt be the digging of tilapia ponds on the White House lawn.
Just today there were pieces on this from the US and the UK. But what I would really be interested to know is to what extent all these “new” gardeners, including the First Lady, are using heirloom seeds. Is there demand for them? And if so, is it being met by supply?
The Royal Horticultural Society has put out a call for heirloom vegetable seeds in Wales. Is it because it fears for their continued existence, or because enough seed is not available to meet sky-rocketing requests?
Seeds discovered through the scheme will be redistributed through local seed-swaps and also through the Heritage Seed Library run by Garden Organic in Coventry.
Given the recent news about the “official” national vegetables genebank in the UK, one does have to be thankful for things like the Heritage Seed Library, and its American cousin Native Seed Search. Maybe Michelle can be persuaded to Adopt-a-Crop.
Thank you for the plug for Native Seeds/SEARCH and thank you for being a source of information on agro-biodiversity.
All the best,
Bryn Jones
Executive Director
Luigi asks if there is a demand for heirloom seeds and whether it is being met by supply. The number of seed swap events in the UK is increasing every year. We are often contacted to attend/support such events.
Thanks, Kate. So you think the increased interest in gardening in general (as evidenced eg in increased demand for allotments) is translating in increased demand for heirloom seeds? All these new gardeners are preferentially going for heirlooms rather than commercial seed varieties?
Many will be buying commercial seeds: “Sales of vegetable seeds have massively increased, according to the seed company Suttons, which says that 70 per cent of seed sales are now vegetables, and 30 per cent flowers, reversing the trend of five years ago when 30 per cent of sales were vegetable seeds” but I’d say that a significant number of new gardeners are interested in heirloom seeds. Even commercial companies are selling ‘heirloom’ varieties, so there must be a demand.
The National Gardening Association is one the association who offers grants and education about the planting and if you are looking for a rare seeds, this association may help you.
First Lady Michelle Obama is taking other heights of helping children to live in a healthier lifestyle—-through gardening. That sounds good right! I like the way she is using herself to help the environment through establishing the Youth Gardening Program. Keep up the good work!
I’ve just been browsing some of your archives and came across this post. It’s funny, I’ve had a completely different take on this situation.
The initial varietal list published by the White House suggested nearly all of what they are growing are heirloom. I noticed one (suspected) commercial variety on the list, I think it was an onion or pea, I’ve forgotten now.
In the US, my unofficial sense is that in fact there is a huge glut of heirloom seeds. Since this kind of market is much less regulated there, and there’s been interest for a few years now in older varieties, a lot of people have been trying to make a little extra money by growing seeds in their own gardens and trying to sell them on Ebay or to smaller seed companies. At the same time the Chinese producers have also gone into full production mode, and many of the larger commercial seed companies are offering large (ounce/28g) quantities of OP seeds grown this way for almost less than it costs an independent local producer to put their seeds in an envelope and mail them somewhere.
I think this is really a bit of a disaster for many people who counted on making a little money this year selling their seeds.
For example, have a look at this place, especially their bulk prices:
http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com/
Bulk parsley seeds for $2 an ounce? No one can make money selling seeds this way.
Also, a more well known source, Baker Creek:
http://rareseeds.com
A lot of their bulk seeds go for $4-6/ounce. Here in Europe it’s not unheard of to pay this much for a single packet.
The adopt a crop is a great idea, :)