Each year the Heritage Seed Library trials re-discovered heritage varieties as potential new additions to the collection.

It is always an exciting part of our growing season and this year’s assessments are now well under way. We will be watching their progress, taking lots of measurements and photos, checking that plants are healthy, and looking out for any issues such as cross-pollination. We are trialling a dozen varieties this year and these include St Gorran’s broad bean, thought to have been grown and saved in the locality of the villages of Kestle and Gorran, near St Austell in Corwall for around 90 years, and May Queen pea, a rare 19th century English variety.

We review all of our trials at the end of the year and, once safely conserved in the Heritage Seed Library and will then increase seed stocks so that our members can grow and enjoy them.

For more information here about the work we do and how you can get involved.