

CONTENTS

14-15

INTRODUCTION
Who would have thought it?
Who would have thought that this mild, wet corner of the British Isles would become a centre for seed sovereignty?
Yet, this part of the world is brimming with pioneering farmers, growers, millers, bakers and brewers who are trail-blazing their way to a human scale, community-controlled seed system.
From rolling Cotswold hills to coastal Cornish farms, we are in awe of the seed work we see happening here. We're proud to work with such an inspiring group of individuals and wanted to create this zine as a way of sharing your stories.

Thank you for being part of this vital community.
We hope you enjoy hearing from your fellow seed stewards.
Ellen Rignell & Robyn Minogue South West Seed Sovereignty Programme CoordinatorsPIZZA
THE The col Mar And Usi gro Net See
PIZZA TOPPING ONE

Desert Spirit
Squash
Culinary Landra
Seed from this winter squash ' collected from Wild Mounta (Colorado) through the Seed Programmes' International Exchan diverse population of winter squas bred for 'divine flavour' and pe size whilst maintaining a bounty diversity in traits such as growth habit.

See Pg 16-18 on growing landraces
PIZZA TOPPING TWO
Chicory

This little-known winter vege celebration of crop genetic are countless different v linked to a region of Italy are still carefully stewarded well suited to the South West and is the perfect addition given its Italian heritage.

See Pg 24-27 on chicory

PIZZA TOPPING THREE
Westcombe Sobrasada

This cured salami is made from Tamworth pigs, reared to 10 months of age at Gothelney Farm, an active member of the SW Grain Network. The pigs are fed on cover crops and herbal leys and are inherent to their low-input soil fertility management system. Fred Price, farmer at Gothelney says: ' We've been on quite a journey at Gothelney, reimagining a food system around people, friendships and trust. On the farming side we have been feeling our way towards a less imposing, more sensitive and balance ecological approach. The pigs have been a huge part pf that process. We have a virually closed loop system - pasture focused, with all their food grown on farm.'


' A soft spreadable salami
recipe originatingfrom the
Spanish Balearic Island of
Menorca flavoured with
Pimenton Dulce de la Vera
giving a warm heat , deep,
orange-red colour, and a
sweet , almost fruitybackdrop,
to the pleasant tang
indicative of this product . '
Westcombe Charcuterie
Astor in the Cotswolds and malted in Warmin up of around 20-30 different varieties includ Barley. As far as we know, it is first ti grain, which can be traced back to the Vik grown in England.
Why population barley?
The large diversity of varieties in this p that it has the genetic resilience to yiel input farming systems. The population will the mix of varieties collectively have the with the diseases and weather conditions bioregion has to throw at it.


Malting the barley
Malting is an essential part of brewing bee soaking the grain to start off germination the starches in the grain for converting sugars. Different sized grains malt at diffe order to achieve a full malt for this brew, t to be screened to achieve similar grain size the diversity was removed during this process
How has the The populat grown in a The barley season with and contin experiment
Why continu
In order t with the competition
conventional farmers will often use glyphosate to kill weeds prior to drilling.
Ploughing causes a number of different problems - it releases soil carbon, nitrous oxide, kills mycelium and has a damaging effect on soil life. Likewise, glyphosate is known to cause numerous ecological problems.

If Henry and John can perfect a continuous cropping system, where the population barley outcompetes the weeds, then ploughing and herbicide use would become unnecessary. They are in their third year of this experiment.
We look forward to hearing future developments!

SOUTH WEST GRAIN NETWORK
We are a group of South West bakers, millers & farmers who are taking active steps into an alternative grain economy, one that is human scale, non-commodity and grounded in friendship and collaboration.












Exeter Seed Bank was set up firstly to share knowledge ab create a seed bank that works consideration of biodiversity l
We wanted to compliment and lin groups and individuals in the local seed guardians project an group of community gardens, garden seed savers growing extra

We include wildflower seeds and to support the presence of environment. We are interested sharing what we learn and sav share.
-Mandy Biscoe and Johanna Korndo
''We use art, craft and heritage t with the natural world an
STROUDCOMMUNITY SEEDBANK


This has been a challenging year for veg growing, but the group is still managing to produce seed to distribute next year and thereafter.
Some veg has happily gone to seed in the hot weather. The photo shows Jane Brown with one of her Rainbow Chard plants. Jane is 5 feet tall, so these are over 6 feet!

The group has grown a Parsnip now called Thrupp Parsnip due to its location in a low altitude, good soil area of the Stroud District. This is not a new variety, but an adaptation and is called a Landrace after more than 12 years continuous growing and saving in this area. The original variety is lost in the mists of time!!
A Devon based South West Seed Saver member said it was a particularly good root for his soil and asked for some more last year! We have learned that it is happier in richer stone free soils and is sometimes disappointing in the Cotswold ‘Brash’ (thin, lime rich and stony soils) and on the higher areas around the district, so we are now careful to give this info in our catalogue.

Rainbow chard germination tests: Pots show lower germination in seeds baring a higher variety of coloured stems
A good reputation for locally saved seeds is hard to build up, and very easy to lose, as folk are more inclined to ‘blame’ our seeds for poor results and less likely to look at soils and weather.

To keep up quality of seeds, the Seed Bank only accept seeds saved from people who have attended our workshop as a necessary level of expertise required to give us confidence that the seeds we are distributing are of the best quality we can attain.
In response to growing demand for our seeds, our monthly meeting (called the Kernel!) agreed to follow a 3 year programme of basic popular veg and herb seeds saved in larger quantities so that we cope better with crop failures.
We have also agreed to offer collections of mixed seeds in order to navigate the difficulties we have growing on small plots of ground. For example, we will have a large quantity of mixed Lettuce seeds, a mixture of Flat and Curly leaved Parsley as well as some mixed Leek seed. We also had a cross pollination of our Purple Sprouting Broccoli (with Rape) and intend to offer it as ‘Mixed Brassica Greens’. Another idea is to save and ‘pool’ Kale seeds from our members and label them as Mixed Kale Greens.
Our approach is to be aware of what we are doing, make it clear that these are mixtures and label accordingly. This way, we are providing local seeds and vital healthy veg while keeping the quality and integrity of our seeds. It will be made clear that saving seeds from these mixes will need to be for personal use only. - Jane Brown, Sept 2022





VARIETY SHOWCASE
Vital Seeds is an independent seed company producing and selling open-pollinated organic vegetable, herb and flower seeds to gardeners and growers. It was set up in 2018 by Fred Groom and Ronja Schlumberger in response to the lack of availability of organic varieties and the decline of crop diversity in the last decades. They are based in South Devon at Baddaford Farm near Ashburton on about one acre (0.4 hectare) of land which has got polytunnels and outside field space to grow seeds in the most ecological way possible.



Tomato - Mango Lassi - Extremely

Mountain Spirit heritage, including Buttercup, our beloved Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat and others.

The great diversity of genes will make a beautiful range of colours and shapes with amazing flavours. We are excited to be offering such an enthusiastically bred strain of a landrace squash. Apparently it is also as vigorous as it is delicious with excellent storing qualities.


Courgette - Solara yellow variety p abundance of fruits period. Solara is modern open-pollia fruited courgette. W impressed with how p uniform this variety to other yellow vari tried and they tas couple of plants w well fed throughout t
This variety produces dense elongated heads, of striking deep red and white appearance which can be harvested from autumn. The leaves make a wonderful addition to raw salads as they are sweeter than some red headed radicchio types. The heads are equally tasty grilled or sautéed as is commonplace in Italy.



GROWING COSMOS SEED COMMERCIALLY

flowers while working as a nics. They were such a rminate, tolerant of tardy r simple, vibrant flowers.
Organics, we have started ps commercially for Vital e, tomatoes, chard, kale, avourite, cosmos. Growing ops has worked well in our additional revenue stream, when we have space, offers d creativity, and it is omplete their growth cycle re resilient, local food


In the case of the cosmos, it is also just a great reason to grow an entire outdoor bed of cosmos flowers. The bees love them and so does everyone who comes to visit – it’s one of the best bits of the field in the summer and is a joy to walk past and have a quick pause on long, busy days.

Last year we grew the standard pink and white cosmos mix, and this year we grew a red and white streaky variety called ‘Velouette’. We sowed them in April, planted them out in May and under sowed them with clover/yellow trefoil mix in June. We rogued them harshly to remove any pure red-flowered plants and leave the ones with more of the white paint streak effect.
The seed collection began in July, earlier than last year due to the hot, dry summer. The harvest itself is fairly laborious as the seeds ripen sequentially, but the job makes a welcome contrast to the ‘heavier’ work of veg weeding and harvesting. It’s quite nice to be carrying a trug full of seeds rather than crates of heavy veg for a
Once the seed heads reach the ‘hedgehog’ sta the bed once or twice a week plucking them i they are left for another week or so in t continue drying before processing. Cosmos seed crop to process as they are relativel to the chaff and can be easily cleaned by winnowing with very low-tech equipment. processing helps to offset the more time-con
Flower seeds are also forgiving in that cro variation often lead to unique and interes markings on the flowers. As with any see making it work commercially seems to be ha sowing, planting, rogueing, harvesting and p schedule as you would for market crops to m gets missed.
Growing seeds also connects us to oth gardeners. A friend sent me a photo of the mum had grown this summer using seed from V we had grown here.

CHICORYMANIA!







Chicory, walnut, confit onion and
kimchi mayo
Makes 1 large pizza
2 treviso chicory - recipe b
1 Castlefranco chicory, brok into shells and loosely torn bite sized pieces
Handful watercress or mustar
90ml tomato sauce
70g confit onion - recipe be

60g Westcombe dairy cheese c
grated or finely chopped
Kimchi mayo to taste - recip
30g walnuts halves, roughly chopped
Kimchi mayo - 350ml 2 yolks
250ml sunflower oil
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 shallot
1 tbsp olive oil



250g mature kimchi, drained and chopped roughly ½ lime, juiced salt
Finely dice the shallot and fry gently in the olive oil for 5 minutes, add the drained kimchi and fry for a further 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, you want a bit of colour and caramelisation happening here, the mix should be reasonably dry once finished. You can add extra heat if you like by adding a little chilli at this stage. Remove from the heat.
In a mixing bowl whisk together the yolks and mustard to combine, slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking continuously until you’ve achieved a thick glossy mayo. Oil volume may change depending on your yolks, the mayo should be thick. Set to one size
Add the cooked kimchi mixture to a food processor and puree, once smooth add the mayo and quickly mix to combine, season to taste with salt and the lime juice, keep in the fridge till ready to serve.
beauty
andmildness
3 medium sized onions, peeled and slice thinly
40ml olive oil

75ml sweet vinegar, aged balsamic or aged fruit vinegar
50g demerara sugar
1 tsp thyme leaves
Salt and black pepper
Sweat the sliced onion and thyme leaves in the olive oil till very well caramelised, we want plenty of colour here but not burnt, add the sugar and vinegar and turn up the heat to reduce, once the onions are sticky, sweet and sour. Season with salt and plenty of pepper and set aside.
To build the pizza
Start with the tomato sauce on the base, fan out out the cooked treviso chicory and spoon on the confit onions between the treviso, dot over the crushed walnuts, finish with the grated curds, season with a little salt and bake. Once baked, scatter over the cress and chopped Castelfranco chicory and dress the pizza with the kimchi mayo.

Editor: Ellen Rignell
ellen@gaianet.org
With thanks to: Kate Hyde for her cover design and Henry Astor, Mandy Barber, Mandy
Biscoe, Chloe Blackmore, Katie Bliss, Jane Brown, Johanna
Korndorfer, Fred Price, Chris
Onions, Holly Silvester, Ronja
Schlumberger, Cherry Truluck, Freddie Vergano Bullough, and Ashley Wheeler for their contributions
