Hannah has joined our Heritage Seed Library team, as Community Horticultural Co-Ordinator for our National Lottery Heritage Project ‘Sowing your Seeds’.

Hannah will be working alongside Lucy Shepherd to lead our Midlands #SeedSearchProject looking for and learning about rare or unusual local and heirloom crops growing in veg plots, gardens and community green spaces across the Midlands.

A keen grower herself, Hannah is looking forward to learning about the seeds of interesting varieties, and their people, especially where they have a great story attached to them. Maybe that they have a cultural or culinary significance or have been a beloved family food staple for years with the seeds passed down through generations.

She is particularly interested in following the journey of a new potential variety for the catalogue called ‘Judith’s Spanish’, which is a runner bean.

Hannah says, “I am enthusiastically following the trial for this one, as some seed was shared with me by its donor, Judith, last year. This was before I knew I would be joining the project as a co-ordinator! Judith recommended to me that it be grown to eat as a dried bean, a great source of protein. She told me that it tastes like a delicious butter bean, despite runners being a completely different species”.

Hannah is excited to start making connections with community growers across the Midlands, and to see where the seed search might lead!

If you know of a locally grown variety you think we should know about or would like to find out more about the project please fill in our form here