Interview with Sandra Slack from Garden Organic

Sandra Slack is the head of Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library. Sandra, together with a team of dedicated staff and volunteers, performs the important role of conserving, documenting, and making available a range of vegetable varieties that are no longer widely circulated. This is time-consuming work that requires significant attention to detail. The work undertaken by Sandra and her team ensures that crop genetic material can be retained for future generations. Organic Guide recently interviewed Sandra to find out more about her work and the crucial role played within the organic movement by Garden Organic.

Q: How and when was Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library established?

A: Through the mid 1970s legislation was introduced that made it illegal to sell seed of vegetables not registered on the National List or EU Common Catalogue, an expensive and time-consuming process. Economic pressure meant seed companies were not going to keep varieties for ‘niche markets’, as gardeners are thought of. Our founder, Lawrence Hills, saw there was a danger that many familiar varieties would vanish and started collecting them. Over the years the collection grew and developed. We introduced a membership scheme in 1991 to distribute the seed without selling them and ensure they continued to be grown and adapt to new conditions.  We now look after over 800 vegetables but rely on the funds from our supporters to keep the collection going. Please join Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library to help protect these vegetables from threat of extinction, grow them for yourself, learn about them and save them for the future.

Q: Can you briefly describe some of the planning and strategic skills that are required to maintain Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library?

A: The process of protecting an endangered variety is a complex and arduous one. Determining which varieties are at risk often means trawling through seed catalogues as well as keeping a close eye on the National List, although some members alert us to potential losses. Then we need to collect seed and as much information as possible about the variety, grow it to generate fresh seed and make them available to our membership.

In order to grow the plants and produce seeds we have to know how many plants are needed to capture the full genetic base. Too few plants grown mean some characteristics may be lost irretrievably. We also need to assess which crops need isolating to prevent cross-pollination and identify the actual seed which can be tricky; beetroot seed forms in clusters of up to four seeds, achocha seed looks like bits of bark. We need to know how to tell when seed is ripe, how to harvest it, understand potential pests and how to control them when growing and storing, what conditions are needed to store the seed and many other things. Methodical record keeping, quality control and stock rotation is essential so only good seed is saved and distributed.

Q: How does your team identify individual plant species that need to be preserved through scheduled propagation and seed collection?

A: Most of our vegetables have come from members and interested parties who realise that their favourites are no longer being offered in the seed catalogues. This serves as an early warning that seed companies are withdrawing their support. We also keep an eye on the National List of varieties that can be traded. The list used to highlight those that were going to be deleted too but changes in legislation means varieties can remain listed without being maintained by anyone, so it is no longer so easy to identify ones in danger.

Any seed received goes through a selection criteria; it must be relevant to UK, have been grown to produce seed successfully in UK for at least one season, must not be a hybrid, cross-pollinated or diseased. Due to finite resources we are restricted to collecting only vegetables (not tubers) that reproduce by seed. Grain, potatoes, herbs, flowers and other types are being conserved elsewhere. If anyone offers us seed from other parts of the world we encourage them to contact seed saving organisations in the relevant country so that seed is conserved in it’s rightful place.

Q: Your work depends upon the continuing support of volunteers and participants. How do you coordinate these individuals to achieve a collective goal?

A: It is important to note that unlike most conservation institutes we receive no public funds. We are supported in our work by subscriptions and donations from members and other supporters. In return our members receive quarterly updates on our work and varieties, are able to grow a selection of the endangered vegetables themselves and know they are helping to preserve them for generations to come.

We have two sorts of volunteer, those who work with us at the library and those who grow the varieties in their own gardens for us. Those who work directly alongside us in the library based at our main site, Garden Organic Ryton, do so in much the same way as other volunteers for charitable organisations. They become part of the team and their input is greatly valued.

Those who work independently are our Seed Guardians. We provide them with written Seed Saving Guidelines and telephone support and keep them up-to-date via our newsletters. We send out a list of the orphaned varieties that we particularly need growing early in the year and they choose which they can grow for us and advise them along the way. They then return the seeds that they save in order to keep the collection alive.

Q: To what extent is it possible for your organisation to collaborate with other seed preservation agencies?

A: We are part of the UK Plant Genetic Resources (UKPGR) group, and are consulted by the British government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on regulations and legislation, especially the implementation thereof. We are not a gene bank and don’t have the facilities to offer a reciprocal deal but Warwick Horticulture Research International’s (HRI) plant genetic resources unit hold duplicate samples from our collection in long term cold storage.

Q: Can you describe one of the basic techniques for collecting and storing seed and perhaps contrast this with those required for a particularly challenging species?

A: Collecting French beans is easy: wait until they are crispy on the plant, remove them and pod the beans. It can even be therapeutic. Some seed has to be saved from fruit however and this is less pleasant. Cucumbers have to be left until they are very ripe, mushy and have a tendency to disintegrate in your hand as you pick them. Tomatoes are similar. All the pulp and juice has to be removed in order to store the seed for future years. There are various ways of doing this but you always end up covered in juice and slime. If you use nature’s helpers to clean them and allow microbes to ferment off the pulp, there can be a very powerful smell. I would recommend this as it helps control disease. Having said that there is nothing mysterious about our veg and saving seed is usually straightforward.

Q: How important is it to preserve the cultural context and layers of traditional knowledge relating to endangered plant breeds?

A: We believe it is very important to collect information about our varieties as well as seed. There is not much point knowing how to grow a vegetable if you have no idea which part is edible or how to prepare it. It is also essential to know how to propagate the plant. Without this knowledge you can’t conserve a variety. Some of our varieties come with rich and colourful stories that can tell us much about our social, gardening and culinary heritage.

Mrs Fortune’s’ Climbing French bean was grown by the head gardener at Windsor and apparently was a favourite of the Royal Family. Cyril’s Choice tomato was very nearly lost until it was donated to us to look after, and the Carlin pea was given to us by a family that had grown them for over 100 years.

Q: To what extent can the Heritage Seed Library support commercial organic growers who choose to use open pollinated cultivars?

A: We can’t trade in the seed as it cannot legally be sold and unfortunately we cannot produce quantities large enough to supply commercial growers. However, anyone can become a member and we encourage them to save seed so they can build up their own collections.

Q: What is your philosophy and practice regarding the reintroduction of indigenous species to their native habitats?

A: Local conditions vary tremendously and seeds saved by gardeners at home and handed down through generations are uniquely adapted to cope with their native conditions, carrying with them distinct characteristics. Although Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library is not really involved in landraces, only cultivated plants, i.e. ones that have been bred and maintained by gardeners, we believe that as the climate changes and our war against plant pests and diseases continues, the unique qualities found in rare vegetable species which help them adapt to new conditions and resist attack may be all that stand between us and crop failure on a massive scale. We must do everything we can to keep this precious source of biodiversity alive and protect the future of our food.

Q: Is it possible that climate change will further influence the genetic diversity of the plant varieties which are currently represented in our parks, gardens, and woodlands?

A: People are very good at manipulating conditions so that they can grow what they want, but where veg is grown in conditions the variety can easily adapt to you get the best results. The varieties we collect are open-pollinated (not hybrids) and therefore have great potential for adaptation to new conditions. They also represent a precious source of genetic diversity at a time when commercial production is centring on fewer and fewer varieties. Prevailing conditions tend to influence what part of the available characteristics in each variety become manifest. Any change in climate in would influence this. An increase in disease would favour more resistant varieties. Those too difficult to grow would become less popular.

Q: To what extent is Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library interested in challenging the legislation and political decisions that promote the interests of chemical based agriculture?

A: As the UK’s leading organic growing charity Garden Organic is working with many British and international government agencies and environmental organisations to influence an organic and sustainable future. Through our Heritage Seed Library in particular we work with DEFRA via the UKPGR and other groups to influence decisions regarding the protection of seed varieties.

Organic Guide wishes to thank Sandra Slack for generously sharing her time and insights. To find out more about Sandra and her dedicated team of heritage seed specialists, please visit Garden Organic.