Having just harvested this year’s crop of potatoes and eagerly awaiting our slow-growing beetroot and ripening tomatoes, I was particularly interested in this graph published by National Geographic. It shows how, in America, people have come to depend on a handful of commercial varieties of fruits and vegetables and thousands of heirloom varieties have disappeared (approximately 93 percent of varieties became extinct in the 20th century). I’m certain the story is pretty much the same in the UK and I’m left wondering how we can prevent further loss in future. I know it’s a small step, but we’ll certainly be sourcing our seeds from a Heritage Seed Library next year.
