Heritage Fruit and Veg

Comment by Stephen Shirley on August 24, 2010 at 10:09

Sad News...

I heard yesterday that Leeds Castle may be pulling out their vineyard this Winter as it does not earn enough. As this was first planted in 1806 I think this is one of the oldest in the UK so it will be a shame to see it go - especially as elsewhere vineyards are on the up!

Comment by jacqui turrell on August 29, 2010 at 21:39

Found a lovely site 'The Real Seed Catalogue' which has some interesting vegetable seeds

Comment by Trish le Gal on August 30, 2010 at 9:32

I've tried quite a few from Real Seeds and I'm a big fan. Their yellow carrots are fantastic and a purple plum tomato called Purple Ukraine is one of the tastiest ever. A couple of years ago they tried putting out a catalogue especially for autumn and winter planting but I don't think there were enough takers which is a shame as the spring (aka the 'hungry gap') is a time of the year we could do with more veg.

Comment by Kathy Doyle on September 3, 2010 at 14:04

My best successes with heritage varieties have been with tomatoes. I've tried loads over the years, and they mostly compare well with modern sorts. This year I've had Black Prince, Mr Stripy, Red Zebra, Amish Paste, Brandywine, Marmande, Principe Borghese, Prudens Purple. Not all heritage i know, but just a couple of plants of each, they make a great salad all thrown together with Jamie Oliver's dressing.

Comment by Debi Williamson on January 4, 2011 at 21:18

This year will be my first at trying a few heirloom varieties.  Found a great site for tomatoes  heirloomtoms.org  Looking forward to getting my OrangE Banana variety and also the pineapple one too, which apparently has the tangy taste of pineapple.  Also trying the Lemon Russian Variety too.  Has anyone tried any o f these? x

Comment by Patrick Wiebe on January 9, 2011 at 22:16

Hi Debi, heirloomtoms.org looks pretty good.  I grew pineapple a few years ago, and if you like sweet tomatoes it tastes great.  It has nice colors too.  It did get some black fly. 

Blight is a big problem for tomatoes, and if you have a greenhouse available, they will do better grown indoors.  I don't grow too many tomatoes any more because they just all seem to get blight.  Some years you get lucky though, and I hope it goes well for you!

Comment by Debi Williamson on January 21, 2011 at 12:56

I grow my tomatoes in doors Patrick I think its too cold to be growing them outside around here.  I always grow my spuds well away from the tomatoes and touch wood we havent suffered from blight!  I tend to eat tomatoes straight away they tend not to leave the greenhouse!  Gonna experiment this year abit, as well as the heirloom varieties, Im gonna try the NFT method and also air pots and compare it with the traditional method, though think I'll use a more common variety of tomato!

Comment by miriam abbott on February 7, 2011 at 23:27

I have used the Real Seeds Catalogue.  i got some lovely Telephone Peas from them, they did really well for me and grew to about 8-10 foot high.  That is why they are called "Telephone " Peas.  They were really sweet and lasted well in storage.

 

Comment by Petra Hoyer Millar on April 2, 2011 at 10:49

Noel Kingsbury's latest blog post on heritage or heirloom veg is worth a read...! http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=16533#more-16533. What do you think?

Comment by Sarah Rideout on April 18, 2011 at 16:30

Have peas from the heritage seed library coming up well - my favourite is 'Robinson' which last year produced an amazing crop of long pods with really delicious peas.

Also trying Clarkes Beltony Blue and Newick.

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