I was contacted this week by a fellow community-minded grower with a cool story. Let me share.
Xanthea Haynes leads the way at Cropwell Community Garden, an agroecological community garden space in the village of Cropwell Butler, Nottinghamshire.
In January 2025, Xanthea came to Seedy Sunday Belper, gladly sharing many own saved seeds. Of course, she also took away some new seeds.
Sharing
“We are trying to connect some seeds with their source, the seeds are Groninger Stro-gele drying bean seeds that have been grown in South Normanton for 20+ years. They came from one of the Belper Seedy Sunday events,” Xanthea writes.
And a connection is made with the Heritage Seed Library. “It makes such a fascinating story the fact that they’ve grown for 20 years in Normanton, but were originally from Groningen in the Netherlands. So, we’d really appreciate your help on this detective quest and help us find the grower who shared seeds” added Gisela, Seed Search project coordinator at Garden Organic.
Will the grower please step forward? Don’t be shy. You’re onto something good here and it deserves to be shared!
Searching for seeds in the Midlands
Earlier this year, an exciting new Seed Search was launched at the Heritage Seed Library, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, called “Sowing your Seeds – heritage crops for a resilient future”.
Made possible thanks to National Lottery players, this two-year project aims to find, conserve and share heritage and unusual vegetable varieties and their stories across the Midlands. Please find more details on the project webpage.
“We are looking to connect with growers, seed savers, allotments and community growing spaces to expand our seed search, share seed saving knowledge and stories across the Midlands.
We are planning a programme of activities including webinars, in-person workshops and other events, in collaboration with community organisations and allotments to share seed saving skills and find out more about crops thriving in veg plots and growing spaces across the region. If you’d like to co-organise an event, please contact us.
To let us know about seeds you’ve been saving from heritage or unusual crops that have been growing well in the Midlands, please contact us here: bit.ly/HSLseedsearch“
Shall we collaborate and organise something in Belper? Where could we host it, the new Belper community hall garden perhaps?
We’ll update you with any bean stories that come our way!
Join us at Seedy Sunday Belper, 25 January 2026 where we will share many thousands more seeds, the stories that go with them, and some lunch too.
Earthed Up! 