Pumpkins for Seeds

We harvested our pumpkin crop and they are beautiful. They are from a glorious diverse landrace* called Desert Spirit. We have been growing this as a seed crop for Seeds of Scotland.

Desert Spirit is a landrace of squash that was originally selected for taste by Wild Mountain Seeds in Colorado. It has done really well here – the vigorous plants have produced a wide range of colours and shapes of fruit. We are totally in awe of the beauty and diversity of the fruits from this generous plant and feel honoured to be able to grow this on behalf of Seeds of Scotland.

* A ‘landrace’ is a variety of farm crop, or species of farm animal, selected and bred for the local weather and soil conditions. Landrace varieties become part of a region’s culture and character, and can be crucial to survival in that area. They are a legacy, handed down through generations of farmers, for the benefit of their communities. They are also diverse and adaptable, as long as farmers have the knowledge and freedom to do their own selection, and to share with other farmers.

Our journey has seen us planting the seeds in the middle of May, transplanting them out into the field in mid-June and cheering them on through the season. We’ve now harvested the crop and are ready to make the final selection for seeds.

We’re looking for plants that thrive in our climate, and reliably produce tasty, well-sized pumpkins. The selection process started right from germination, when we picked out the healthiest and most robust seedlings to plant on. We then selected again – harvesting from the healthy, robust plants that ripened early. From those, we set aside the pumpkins that are too small or too big. From the target size fruits (not too big, not too small – will  fit in a veg bag or your oven) we can then make further selections, for example choosing to save seed from those with deep orange coloured flesh, a small seed cavity relative to flesh, a high yield of pollinated seeds, a high ratio of seed to pulp in seed cavity (easy to clean), delicious flavour and easy to cut. In doing this, we gradually adapt the population towards the traits we’re aiming for.

You’ll soon be able to buy the seeds to grow your own – click here to go to the Seeds of Scotland online shop

Also, you can join us on Tuesday 11 November at 10am to help with the final step in processing this year’s seeds, and be part of Scotland’s seed revolution:
click here to go to the Pumpkin Seed Processing Party Signup sheet

Growing Seed Sovereignty at the Farm

Seeds are the starting point for everything we do. Rebuilding seed sovereignty is a critical part of our work to increase food security and increase food joy! (by selecting resilient and delicious plants and saving their seed). The pumpkins are not the only crop we’re growing for seed. The three acres of winter wheat, which has germinated beautifully in the top field, is all from seed we’ve been saving and bulking up (see last month’s wheat sowing article for more on this). We’re also saving lots of veg seed – either to test new varieties that we think might have a place in the Market Garden and field crops, or to bulk up seed for varieties we’re sure are a good fit for us and that we want to grow at scale or share with our community.

Some of these are already in action. Our CSA members and market stall shoppers have been eating some veg grown from seed we’ve been saving from our first few years on the land. Our favourites this year have been ‘Uncle Bills Blue Bean’ and our ‘Piment D’espellete’ Paprika peppers. It feels powerful and rewarding to build this independence, away from the multinational chemical companies who patent seed varieties, which gives them a huge amount of control over the farming and food system.

We also have a recalcitrant crop of GIANT parsnips grown from our own seed that we’re struggling to get out of the ground… Maybe we needed to be selecting seeds for smaller roots that would be easier to pull! We’re persisting because when we can lift them they are delicious, but the digging is back breaking and often leading to damage to the roots.

Winter Tunnels

The summer crops have been cleared and we’re enjoying figuring out what crops we can grow in winter. Our long-term goal is to have year-round food production on the farm, so being able to make good use of our tunnel space is critical. We have a tasty selection of spicy leaves, chinese cabbages, spinach and overwinter beans. These will make it into the last of our CSA shares and also be early crops for next season to help reduce the ‘hungry gap’.