New Year – new growing season – new varieties – new seeds!

The Wales Seed Hub’s on-line shop is now open Seeds – Wales Seed Hub | Hwb Hadau Cymru, with dozens of varieties of vegetables on offer plus some easy-to-grow annual flowers – all produced in Wales by our cooperative of small-scale growers.

As always, the varieties have been chosen because they grow well in the Welsh climate. Some are Welsh varieties, some are garden favourites which have shown particular promise to us, but many are not readily available elsewhere. Read on for a taste of what we have to offer….

Varieties from Wales
The long straight green beans of our new Welsh-bred runner ‘Stenner’ has famously won prizes at local and national shows since the 1970s, and it is fantastic to cook with too. Selected in south Wales by the late Brython Stenner, it joins our other Welsh varieties such as the ‘Llanover’ pea and ‘Gardener’s Ecstasy’ tomato.

Special salads
Looking for an early start for spring salads? Our new lettuce ‘Emerald Oak’ is perfect for quick cut-and-come-again harvests. Add this to the peppery leaves of ‘Grandpa’s Cress’ and ‘Mr Hong’s’ Vietnamese Mustard’ for a deliciously vibrant mix. Later in the year team them with one of our new tasty tomatoes such as ‘Black Cherry’ or ‘Graham’s Tom Thumb’.

Winter veg can be exciting too
This year we have some super-sweet new squashes such as ‘North Georgia Candy Roaster’ joining our popular favourite ‘Blue Hubbard’. You can store them for eating alongside winter staples such as leeks and parsnips (and yes – we now have seeds of these too!).

Beans for all seasons
We have French beans such as ‘Lazy Housewife’ which give tender green pods in summer, and varieties such as the red-seeded ‘Uplands’ and bi-coloured ‘Pea Bean’ that can be dried for winter soups and casseroles. If you like these hot, spice them up with one of our chillies – there are several to choose from.

Join us at an event near you….
The Wales Seed Hub team have not only been growing, harvesting, cleaning and packing seed. We have been out and about – talking about seed saving, demonstrating how we harvest and clean our seeds and – most important – meeting you, our customers! You could have seen our stalls at community events, major shows and big conferences all across Wales – Carmarthen’s Seedy Saturdays, the Royal Welsh Show at Builth Wells and the Wales Real Food and Farming Conference at Ruithin, for example. We will be attending similar events this year – watch out for them on our Facebook page. Meanwhile enjoy looking at our catalogue and have a good growing season!