Heritage Varieties

The Black Spanish radish is a unique variety with a inky black, thick skin that resembles that of a rhinoceros. But that craggy, tough exterior is what protects the tender, spicy, crisp, pure-white flesh. They are reliable, last forever in the garden and in storage, and are one of the easiest things you will ever grow.

Radish ‘China Rose’ is a traditional winter hardy variety that produces long, tapering roots with attractive rosy pink skins and crisp, pure white flesh. Its cylindrical roots grow 15 to 20cm long and add flavour to winter salads. The leaves can also be added to salads and stir fries.

Radish 'Long White Icicle' is a uniform strain which forms long, pure snow-white roots. The white flesh is crisp and mild and less pungent than that of the round varieties, they have a spice that warms the tongue, but doesn’t bite back. Very easy to grow and ready for harvest only 25 days after planting,

Rhubarb Victoria was introduced by Joseph Myatt of Deptford in 1837. It is one of the easiest to raise from seed and can usually start to be harvested one year after sowing. It produces sweet, juicy, medium sized green stalks with green-red leaves. A popular forcing variety being extremely productive for years.

Root Parsley Hamburg is an off-beat, dual purpose vegetable that deserves to be better known. The root can be left in the ground all winter and dug up as and when your Sunday roast requires and the luxury of having plenty of leaves to snip from the garden in winter can’t be overstated.

Sorrel De Belleville is a small French cultivar. It is hardy and well-proven to be productive under almost any conditions with an excellent lemon flavour. One of the earliest green crops and embarrassingly easy to grow, it needs no attention other than when you want to eat it.

Blocky, deeply ribbed and extremely bumpy, for most of the season they are a gorgeous dark green to charcoal black, but in autumn 'Futtsu Black Early' mature in a fascinating metamorphosis, to a grey-bloomed dusty orange. Harvest in the midst of their transformation for funky autumn displays or wait for them to ripen completely for maximum flavour, nutty and sweet with hints of chestnut.

This very old Italian Heirloom rustic variety originates from near Venice and is considered the King of Italian Squashes. Round, short, and squat in shape, the dark green to grey-blue skin has slight, vertical ridging and is almost completely covered in bumps. When cooked, Marina di Chioggia squash is tender and sweet with nutty flavours.

A curiously-shaped heirloom winter squash from France that is named for the colour and shape of the fruit, Squash 'Turkish Turban' produces attractive, acorn shape fruit, at its blossom end is a Turban-like cap, thus its name. Closely related to the buttercup squash, the taste is similar to other Cucurbita maxima cultivars.

This wonderful heritage variety of alpine Strawberry produces loads of little red strawberries that are bursting with flavour. Much sweeter than their traditional commercial cousins they possess a fine, old fashioned flavour. Plants have compact growth with few runners. An alpine Strawberry that is very hard to find, excellent for high altitude climates!

Those who love colourful bright coloured tomatoes will definitely like Tomato 'Arancia'. A beautifully rounded, orange-yellow tomato with an average weight of around 175 grams and with a remarkably sweet taste, this is a commercial variety with Polish origins. Famously cold, drought and disease resistant it reliably bears fruit steadily throughout the season .

Black Krim is one of the oldest and most popular heirloom varieties, largely responsible for fueling many growers obsessions with heirloom tomatoes. It yields large fruits that are blessed with an extremely rich, earthy true tomato flavour. The combination of the colour, shape and taste is simply gorgeous.

Few tomatoes can rival the Brandywine for popularity, they are grown worldwide. With an exceptional rich, succulent flavour and creamy flesh, one picked fresh at the peak of ripeness, tastes so good that it may well set the standard for what a tomato should taste like.