I'm a journalist, writing a piece on our disappearing fruit and veg. Britain
was once a haven of unusual and eccentric vegetable varieties - from the
Bath cos lettuce to the Worcester pearmain apple. But a recent study
revealed that 98 per cent of vegetable varieties have disappeared over the
last century - not least because of EU regulations about seed lists. Why
have all the varieties disappeared? Which ones, from the obscure to the
household names, are currently under threat? What can we do about it? What
are the consequences (e.g for our food security)? What do you experts
reckon?

--

Richard Johnson

On Mon, 7 Jan 2008 10:52:39 +0000, Richard Johnson wrote
(in article ):

I'm a journalist, writing a piece on our disappearing fruit and veg. Britain
was once a haven of unusual and eccentric vegetable varieties - from the
Bath cos lettuce to the Worcester pearmain apple. But a recent study
revealed that 98 per cent of vegetable varieties have disappeared over the
last century - not least because of EU regulations about seed lists. Why
have all the varieties disappeared? Which ones, from the obscure to the
household names, are currently under threat? What can we do about it? What
are the consequences (e.g for our food security)? What do you experts
reckon?



You might find some of the background reading on the Heritage Seed Library of
interest:
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church with conservation
churchyard:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

On 7/1/08 10:52, in article , "Richard
Johnson" wrote:

I'm a journalist, writing a piece on our disappearing fruit and veg. Britain
was once a haven of unusual and eccentric vegetable varieties - from the
Bath cos lettuce to the Worcester pearmain apple. But a recent study
revealed that 98 per cent of vegetable varieties have disappeared over the
last century - not least because of EU regulations about seed lists. Why
have all the varieties disappeared? Which ones, from the obscure to the
household names, are currently under threat? What can we do about it? What
are the consequences (e.g for our food security)? What do you experts
reckon?

You could start by looking at people who are preserving certain fruit
varieties, perhaps? This nursery has some of the more ancient types in
their catalogue.
http://www.thornhayes-nursery.co.uk/gallery_fruit.php

Speaking personally, I think an island nation that cannot feed itself the
most basic of food stuffs is just begging for trouble. But how you educate
people who are in government, or people who are unaware of the threat to our
farms and therefore, our countryside, I just don't know. Good luck!
I think, too, that books and articles need to be written which garner
information from some of the real 'old boys' - or their immediate successors
- still left who know how to grow food and not simply make an instant garden
by rolling out the turf! ;-)
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 7 Jan, 10:52, "Richard Johnson" wrote:
I'm a journalist, writing a piece on our disappearing fruit and veg. Britain
was once a haven of unusual and eccentric vegetable varieties - from the
Bath cos lettuce to the Worcester pearmain apple. But a recent study
revealed that 98 per cent of vegetable varieties have disappeared over the
last century - not least because of EU regulations about seed lists. Why
have all the varieties disappeared? Which ones, from the obscure to the
household names, are currently under threat? What can we do about it? What
are the consequences (e.g for our food security)? What do you experts
reckon?

I would say that I find the problem of our disappearing fruit and veg
through 3 major causes: the first the lack of soil knowledge, or
should that be the loss of knowing about the benefit to care for our
soil, however small space we have, and produce our own food; second
would be the 'fashion' at large and the demands for a special variety,
usually resistant to anything but as tasteless and as unblemished as a
supermarket produce; and finally seasonal fruits/vegs - if we kept the
demands high for seasonal food, we would not only enjoy lots of
different varieties to keep us interested in winter (and discover many
new variety in the process), this would be over the choice of cherries
in January (which I've seen yesterday!!) and tomatoes grown in Peru
and pickled in Co2. HTH