School Heritage Seed Guardians

 

December 2015

A pilot project with Garden Organic's
Heritage Seed Library (HSL)

Food Growing Schools: London (FGSL) is running an exciting pilot seed saving scheme with a limited number of London schools during the growing season 2016.

Important work to preserve orphan seeds

FGSL is working with the Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library (HSL) to give London schools an opportunity to take part in the important work to preserve orphan seeds and grow varieties of vegetables that are not widely available. Some of the varieties were once commercially available, but have now disappeared from seed catalogues, others have been passed down through generations before being donated to the HSL. Many seeds have a story to tell and there are varieties with special local significance. The HSL not only collect the seed, but also have rich information about their characteristics, methods of use, origin and history that we can share with our pilot schools.

Limited Spaces - apply now

We have a limited number of spaces left for the pilot, so If you can answer yes to the following questions and would be interested in taking part in our Orphan Seed Guardian Pilot then contact Julie Henley-Wilkinson at FGSL by email:

• Do you have provision to take care of plants being grown for the HSL during the holiday periods, in particular the long summer break?
• Do you have an outdoor growing space in your school that you can dedicate to the sowing,nurturing/growing and harvesting of one or two varieties of  orphan seeds for seed production?
• Do you have a dedicated adult that can take overall responsibility for your school participating in the pilot? Someone who can; attend a free training and information session in the Spring term 2016, work with pupils to take an active role in the seed saving pilot, record findings and keep in regular contact with FGSL to report on progress?   

Funding and seeds for your school
The pilot will be fully funded by FGSL and schools participating will, in addition to the orphan seed saving, have the opportunity to choose an additional 6 varieties of heritage seeds to grow essentially for the schools own use to produce some tasty healthy food.