We supply 3 types of seed:
Organic / Heart / Non-organic
We prefer to offer Organic seed & all the seed we grew on our farm is Organic. Some of the seed grown elsewhere is not.
Every item in the catalogue has a little symbol showing what kind of seed it is.
We're committed to sustainable
agriculture and & try to minimise the impact of our lives on the planet:
So we don't use any chemicals for our growing, we use electricity generated from
the wind, sun and water,and much of our heating is by renewably coppiced wood. We don't fly, and
try to reduce our car use.
Much of our vegetable growing and weeding is by hand - we have a small tractor for preparing the seedbeds at the start of each season. Two thirds of our land are devoted to wildlife and woodland. Overall , our aim is that at the end of our lives, we will leave the
soil and ecosystems in a better condition than at the start.
Seed Source Symbols Explained:
HEART: |
We have a network of seed growers, and are training more through the Gaia Seed Sovereignty programme. They use no chemicals, but because of their size many of them are not certified organic. Their seed is marked with a heart. |
ORGANIC: |
Certified Organic seed grown by us or other organic growers, marked with the SA seal. |
CONVENTIONAL:
|
Whenever possible we get certified organic seed, but if there's no small-scale supplier or good organic seed available, we'll track down top-quality conventionally grown seed, making sure they are not treated with any fungicides or pesticides after harvest. This seed is marked with a gear. |
We don't have anything to do with treated (fungicide-coated), hybrid seed,
or genetically modified seed!
(We don't believe you should plant in the soil anything you wouldn't be happy to put in your dinner.)
Open-Pollinated Seed means you can save your own!
All our seeds come with instructions on how to save pure seeds for use in the following years. This is only possible because none are hybrids. Seedsaving is a simple process that is vital if you want to be able to carry on growing vegetables suitable for home growing rather than those bred for commercial chemical farming.
While it may seem odd for us to encourage you to keep you own seed, it is obvious to us that the world is in a perilous state as we enter a period of rapid climate change just as we have lost all our traditional vegetable varieties. We would prefer that you saved your own seed - preserving this biodiversity for future generations is far more important than us making big profits.
Organic certificates
If you need copies of our Soil Association documentation you can download them from here:
- Organic certificate (producer),
- Organic certificate (processor)
- Trading schedule (seed production),
- Trading schedule ( seed processing / packing ),
- Information schedule (seed production)