Meet the team!
Katie Hastings works as the Wales Coordinator for the UK Seed Sovereignty Programme. The programme is supporting a biodiverse and ecologically sustainable seed system in the UK and Ireland. Katie is acting Secretary for the Wales Seed Hub and is supporting this enterprise to set up sustainable selling and distribution systems.
Chris Vernon lives on a One Planet Development smallholding in Carmarthenshire and after completing a seed-saving course in 2019 is now growing seed for the Wales Seed Hub and for Real Seeds as well as saving seed for home use.
Sue Stickland lives on a smallholding in Montgomeryshire and is gardens co-ordinator for ‘Cultivate’ –
Newtown’s local food coop. She has wide experience of vege growing and seed-saving, having previously worked for Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library.
Carolyn and Paul Moody have a ‘One Planet Development’ near Llanelli in south west Wales, and over 40 years combined experience in growing fruit and veg. Their land is managed using permaculture principles and they have recently begun their conversion to organic status. They have been growing seed commercially since 2020.
Neil Moyse is a lifelong professional gardener, he is establishing an artisan salad market garden in West Carmarthenshire based on no-dig, permaculture and forest gardening principles. Seed saving, seed safeguarding and seed sovereignty are paramount to his work as a horticulturalist.
Peni Ediker is successful market garden, supplying her local community with seasonal organic vegetables. Peni has trained with Real Seeds, has grown seed for real seeds and now is growing seeds for the seed hub.
Maxwell Woodford moved to Wales 7 years ago, trained on a ‘Pathways to Farming’ programme and jointly set up a locally grown community veg box scheme. He attended a couple of seed saving courses and now grows vegetables and seed on a small holding in Montgomeryshire without the use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides.
Tilly Gomersall is currently doing an MSc in Sustainable Food at the Centre for Alternative Technology where she also grows her seed crops. She has worked on several different market gardens and farms across Wales and Shropshire and is now embarking on her own green ventures.
Maggie Carr has been saving seeds from her best plants for many years from her home on the edge of the Loughor Estuary in Carmarthenshire. She’s happy that the plants have become well adapted to the conditions here in Wales and loves to wander around the site, observing the daily changes and the riches of wildlife. Close observation makes for good growing and seed saving.
Lauren Simpson is a new entrant landworker in West Wales managing a market garden to provide ingredients for fermented foods business Parc y Dderwen as part of a small off grid farm. Alongside growing vegetables for fermenting, Lauren grows seeds for both the Wales Seed Hub and Real Seeds.