The Heritage Fruit Tree Register is being launched at the next Bega Markets on Friday 19th March.
The Bega Valley Seed Savers are joining forces with the Sapphire Coast Producers Association to create a register of heritage fruit varieties in the area.
Our region has a long history of productive gardens so there are many old fruit varieties growing in gardens and on farms that can no longer be purchased from nurseries. The Seed Savers group would like to help save these old varieties by creating a register of trees that can be used for grafting material.
People with trees that they are willing to allow cuttings for grafting to be taken during winter are encouraged to add their tree to the register.
Old productive trees of unnamed varieties - perhaps chance seedlings - are also of interest as they are proven performers in our climate and soils. These trees may in the future form the basis for new varieties.
As well as people with old trees, people interested in propagating the heritage varieties are also being sought.
Are you unsure what the old variety is that you have in your garden? Come along to the Bega Markets, between 9am and 12pm, and talk to a group of knowledgeable orchardists and gardeners. If at all possible, please bring a sample of the fruit and a photo of the tree.
If you are able to help with the identification of local trees you are warmly invited to join in the fun. There are thousands and thousands of old varieties of fruits and they can be difficult to identify so the more knowledge the better the chance someone will know the tree. Any old catalogues or other material that can be made available to help with identifications would be very welcome.
Later in the year the Seed Savers are planning to hold a tree grafting workshop. Grafting is most easily done in late winter or early spring, but please get in contact soon if you are interested in learning to graft your own fruit trees.
More information is available from the Bega Valley Seed Savers, bvss-info@thebegavalley.com.au or call Liz on 6492 0923 or Anneke on 6492 0992.
The Bega Valley Seedsavers at thebegavalley.org.au/seedsavers.html invited Paul Ubrihien to present his local Maize varieties at the SCPA markets.
Paul is a member of the Bega Show Society and regular contributor and winner at the Sydney Royal Show and our links with him and his community of growers are growing wonderfully.
Bega Valley Seed Savers is a volunteer group dedicated to growing and saving the seeds of non-hybrid and heirloom varieties of mostly edible plants.
We are part of the national Seed savers network, that promotes and supports local networks to save, sort, dry, share, store, and distribute seeds. It is a living bank of plant varieties, as seeds only keep fresh if we keep growing them and eating them!
Some good reasons for us having a Local Seed Network (LSN):
Saved seeds are suited to local conditions as they are sourced and swapped locally, this also means the seed is often fresher.
By continuously selecting the best plants to save seed from we promote strains suitable to our region, and possibly even create some local varieties.
LSNs stop the erosion of our food crop diversity and actually increase the genetic base. Varieties of food crops are shrinking. In the last century 75% of garden varieties disappeared as fewer and fewer people grow and collect their own food and seed. Five multinational companies control 40% of the global vegetable seed market, breeding chemically dependent hybrids and recently some are genetically modified as well.
Seed corporations produce ‘one size fits all’ seeds often grown in countries where the labour is cheap rather than in environments similar to our own.
Another threat to biodiversity is the patenting of plants by the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act (PBRs). Here plants are bred and the result patented and grown on a massive scale. The resilience automatically available in a more diverse system of food production becomes at risk as food biodiversity is reduced. The Irish Potato Famine is an example of the kinds of disaster that kind strike when all our 'eggs' are in one basket.
Farmers used to collect their own seed with many locally adapted varieties all over the world, now because of many pressures they have become dependent on seed companies.
And it's fun!
Exchanging knowledge, swapping seed and feeling more self-reliant as a community is enriching and eating fresh locally grown food is a delicious and healthy pleasure.
The Bega Valley Seed Savers is auspiced by our regional, non-profit association of sustainable farmers and growers - SCPA.
Visit their website at www.sapphirecoastproducers.com.au.
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