Links

Let’s get real here. In the early stages, possibly even in the later stages, Moffat Seed Library is unlikely to be able to meet all your seed needs. So here’s a list of ethical seed companies we highly recommend, other organisations doing amazing work around the issue of seed sovereignty and useful reference books. If you’re not sure what seed sovereignty is, or why it matters, we’ll post a blog about it soon.

Seed Companies

Real Seeds

Real Seeds is an amazing seed supplier, who do a ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ thing of encouraging you to save your own seeds so you don’t have to keep buying from them.

We love the quality of their seeds, the care and attention they pay to walking the talk around ethics and sustainability (check out their print your own seed packet here) and the variety of delicious, unusual vegetables they discover. Without them, we would not have found Huacatay and the magical Peruvian Green Sauce or Ají de Huacatay which now graces just about every rice dish in our house!

Vital Seeds

Vital Seeds was founded in 2018, with the aim of improving the availability of UK-grown organic and open-pollinated seed. Another great business that fully understands the importance of seed sovereignty as part of food system security. All their seeds are organic and open-pollinated so you can save your own seed from them year after year.

They also offer an affordable seed saving course, which we’ll definitely be doing!

Seeds of Scotland

Seeds of Scotland is a Highland-based seed company that grows vegetable, herb and flower seeds in Scotland using agroecological farming practices. They offer a variety of seeds that are adapted to the Scottish climate and respect the historical and cultural significance of each seed.

Campaigning Organisations

Scotland Seed Sovereignty

Scottish wing of The Seed Sovereignty Programme.

Last year, I was reporting that Scotland has no remaining commercial vegetable seed producers as the last Scottish seed company, D.W Croll of Dundee, closed in the 1980s about the same time that other Scottish seed companies either closed or moved “down south”.

Thankfully, that’s no longer true! With the advent of Seeds of Scotland, we are finally seeing the new shoots of Scottish seed production again.

It’s challenging to grow seeds in Scotland. It’s wet and often humid, so ripening and drying a seed crop in the field is difficult. Scotland does, however, have fewer pests and diseases than are found in England and Wales, though climate change may encourage the wee beasties to move northward.

Without Scottish grown seeds, growers north of the border are forced to buy seeds cultivated elsewhere. These seeds expect a warmer, drier climate in which to germinate than Scotland can provide, so it can be challenging to get good germination and harvests.

Scotland Seed Sovereignty is encouraging a new generation of Scottish growers who want to cultivate their own vegetable seeds adapted and ready for our unique climate. Check out their courses and campaign groups!

Booklist

This booklist contains affiliate links to uk.bookshop.org.

  • Some of the most useful recipes when I was starting out as a grow your owner came from my Grandad’s Let’s Preserve It book (affiliate link to uk.bookshop.org). My copy is so old it only has imperial measurements. They’re probably coming back though, so it’s good to keep one’s hand in!
  • I have some seeds that are almost as old as I am. Well no, not quite, but they are very, very old. For ages, I felt that planting by the moon might help me make the most of this unused, if not unloved, resource, but somehow it never quite worked out. Trays and trays of compost hung around doing nothing very much. Then I discovered the Maria Thun Biodynamic Calendar and have never looked back. My old seeds now germinate in no time at all and the plants are healthy and vibrant. This is the only calendar I’ll use now and I get embarrassingly excited when next year’s book hits the bookshops.