Native fruit and vegetable varieties are getting a new opportunity to grow and multiply through the efforts of the Irish Seed Savers' Association. Established eight years ago, its catalogue now offers a range of native Irish varieties of grains, apples and brassicas, explained founder-director Ms Anita Hayes.
"Because we are not dependent on commercial aspects we are able to conserve whatever we want," she said. The work was made easier by "incredible generosity from people all over Ireland" who share plant seeds produced over decades. The association was given seeds from a cabbage variety grown on a Mayo farm for the past 150 years. Seeds from this Delaway cabbage had been handed down through generations, yet it is a variety that would never otherwise be made available.
The association sought native grain species. With no national repository it went abroad, returning with small numbers of seeds held in other countries, including the US, Russia and Norway.
Seeds for one ancient Galway wheat variety and two oat types are now being "bulked up" after two years of growing and saving. One oat produces tough stalks over six feet high and may represent a new source of material for thatchers, Ms Hayes suggested.
Ms Hayes is searching for more brassicas this summer, kales, turnips and sprouts to add to those already on the association's books. Efforts also continue on the apple tree front. UCD holds a national apple seed collection. Many native varieties have superior disease, insect and in some cases wind damage resistance, but these trees exist only in isolated pockets.
The association hopes to bring them back into the open by sharing and exchanging seeds that will produce crops long into the future.
Those interested in contacting the Irish Seed Savers' Association or who can offer access to unusual apple, grain or vegetable varieties can write to Ms Hayes at Capparoe, Scarriff, Co Clare.