The Heritage Seed Library
Champion a heritage variety
Why we need Variety Champions
- Over the last century, we have lost many hundreds of local vegetable varieties, grown for generations by seed companies, families and communities.
- With each variety lost our food production becomes more at risk – the narrower our choice of varieties to grow, the more vulnerable we are to crop failures.
- Since 1975 the Heritage Seed Library has secured the future of 800 at-risk vegetable varieties, sharing them with growers to keep the genetic diversity alive.
- Each year over 100 varieties must be grown, maintained, harvested and stored to replenish aging seed stock.
Your support can help cover the hundreds of thousands of pounds it takes every single year to conserve these varieties.
How your support helps
Your donation directly contributes to the ongoing costs of developing and maintaining the Heritage Seed Library, including:
- Growing and assessing new varieties for potential safeguarding within the collection.
- Maintaining our growing facilities, including polytunnels, isolations cages and our glasshouse.
- Buying compost, biological controls, and other equipment that we can’t make ourselves or source for free.
- Researching varieties to understand their historical or genetic significance.
- Covering the salaries of our specialist team.
Browse our varieties
What champions receive
- Welcome pack including a packet of seeds and details about the variety you’re supporting
- Annual update on the Heritage Seed Library, including information on our recent activities and plans for the coming year and a pack of seeds available only to Champions
- Invitation to an exclusive Variety Champion event at HSL HQ (near Coventry) to go behind the scenes of the Heritage Seed Library
How it works
- Browse our varieties and select the one you’re most interested in, or let us choose for you.
- Set up your monthly payment. If you’re eligible to Gift Aid your donation we can set this up to make your money go even further.
- Enjoy updates on the Heritage Seed Library and look forward to visiting, meeting the team and getting hands on nurturing, harvesting or tasting our varieties.
Browse our varieties
FAQ'S
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Most varieties are too rare for us to be able to spare seed. In some case we have the last known remaining handful, stored for safekeeping in our cold store with a small back-up at the Horticulture Research International department at Warwick University. When it comes time to grow out your variety to replenish the seed stock it may become available via the annual seed list shared with HSL members.
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Your donation will support all the varieties within the Heritage Seed Library, including those not yet put through the rigorous testing to assess their suitability for acceptance into the library.
“The work of the HSL over the years has been heroic ... And growing the varieties at home, nurturing them, enjoying them - that’s the way they have been kept alive. So three cheers for their work!”
