Seed Swap Herefordshire

Yesterday I went to my first ever organised seed swap. 

It was good! 

I normally work on Saturdays but I decided to just work the afternoon and go to the seed swap with my mum instead. I was glad I did, it was really well organised, with stalls selling second hand tools, honey and plants and then the main bit with all the seeds, tubers and plants for swapping.

 The swap was really busy with a massive collection of seeds. You could quite literary get all your seeds for the next year from this swap if you wanted, there was a good selection of saved seeds as well as commercial seeds people had brought in.

They had an hour long talk by Pauline Pear, who has written a few books for garden organic, on saving seeds. I learnt a some new nuggets of information and reinforced some ideas I had about how I was going to go about saving seeds this year (more information towards one of my self sufficiency goals).  There was also some great examples of seed saving and keeping strains pure, like the guy who grows heirloom broad beans on his allotment and to prevent cross pollination he provides everyone on the allotment with his seeds!

Some really knowledgeable people manned the stall for the swap

Some of my offerings - some autumn fruiting raspberries dug up and given away at the seed swap

 I took quite a few packets of seeds that I grew, including chilli peppers, cucamelons and fennel, as well as six bags autumn fruiting raspberries, so I didn't feel guilty taking a few packets to grow this year (although it's a "swap" you don't have to bring anything with you).

I labled my seeds up quite nicely (and even put a shameless link to my blog)

Some of my spoils

Who can guess what this is?

 I managed to get a few really interesting packets of seed, some heirloom lettuces seeds, chickpeas (which many of you will know I was on for growing this year anyway), some different types of beans for drying to use as staples through the winter and an interesting tuber to experiment with. The tuber is another I had looked at buying but decided against it as I've already bought a few different ones this year anyway, Can anyone guess what it is? No prizes - just for fun!

Anyone else been to a seed swap this year or planning on going to one? There are lots on around the country at the moment and I'm sure they'd be glad for you to go along with or without seeds! 

P.S.

I've still got some cucamelon and Cherry Bomb chilli pepper seeds left from my own seed saving last year, if anyone would still like some, just send me an email and let me know (details in the link).