Is there a family favourite vegetable that has been grown and saved for many years? Do you know of a variety with links to a local village, town or region? Have you accidentally or intentionally bred a new variety of vegetable? Or do you save seeds from a variety you can no longer buy?

We are especially interested in tomatoes resistant to blight, rocket that is slow to bolt and strong growing winter salads.

Dyfi Valley Seedsavers, based in Machynlleth, are searching for vegetable varieties that have been grown from their own saved seed in Wales. We aim to bring together a collection of Welsh vegetable varieties which are potentially adapted to our growing conditions, to trial them in Powys, record their characteristics and history, and make seeds available to more growers to preserve precious diversity and heritage.

If you think you have something we might be interested in, we would love to hear from you.

Please get in touch with us with any information about the vegetables(s) history, growing, taste and appearance characteristics, or contact us for more information.

Claire Rhydwen

As well as saving your vegetable seeds, now's the time to think about saving your annual flower seeds such as poppies and pot marigold (calendula). 

Let the pods dry on the plants if possible or pull up the whole plant and take it into the shed to dry off.  Wait until they're fully dry, then extract the seeds and store them in a dry, mouse-free place.

The Seed (National List of Varieties) Act 1973 made it illegal to sell varieties that weren’t registered on an official database. The listed varieties had to be shown to be stable, uniform and distinct. The legislation was intended to protect consumers from dodgy seed, but it’s also meant that we’ve lost hundreds of unregistered varieties.