Cherokee Trail of Tears purple pod bean.
Photo: Seedsavers.org
We thought we should share news of the seeds and stories that seed ambassadors, Andrew and Sarah, passed on to the allotment team on their global mission to share seeds. First and most poignant are the Cherokee Trail of Tears purple pod bean. These were originally saved from the winter death march of 1838 when 17,000 Cherokees were forced from their lands in Georgia and an estimated 4,000 died.
'The beans were given to the Seed Savers Exchange in 1977 by the late Dr. John Wyche, whose Cherokee ancestors carried this bean over the trail,' says Sarah.
We will pass some of ours on to the gardening club at Gospel Oak school, but they can also be bought in the UK from Real Seeds.
Next from Oregon, the ambassadors passed on some Outredgeous lettuce seed, a 'very very red Romaine' from legendary organic seed breeder Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed ; a few ears of a rare perennial wheat, PSR 3628; Domatsu snap (mange tout) pole bean, and Garnet oak leaf lettuce.
As anyone who reads his bio on their site will learn, Andrew is a kale fanatic, so he proudly shared some of his prized Brassica Napus, a true Siberian kale, not be confused, he insists, with the common or garden Russian Red; and from their home town of Eugene, came a packet of Carol's Kale Breeder, a genetically diverse mix of Brassica oleracea.
From their fellow ambassador Nick Routledge came exotic Tagetes (marigolds): some Savannah Rain, Exquisite, Patula, and the brilliantly named Sufi Sam, which Nick threatens can grow to 6ft in semi-shade (we will post reports and pictures of their progress on the allotment).
From their travels throughout Europe, came Belarusian cabbage, picked up in Lithuania; Beurre Aiguille, a French heirloom yellow snap bush bean, and from Belgium they brought Millefleur (thousand flower) a prolific (we hope) cherry tomato and Pisum Sativum Charmette, a bush pea from Flemish plant breeders Peter Bauwens and Kathelijne Thiers
All this bounty has somewhat delayed our own buying: from Garden Organic, Tamar Organics and Demeter seed source Stormy Hall, a Camphill community farm near Whitby, North Yorkshire (01287 661 368).
We are bound to buy too many seeds, but rest assured, when we find we have too many, we will share them with you.
