HAVE you heard of Storage Tomatoes you can keep for months and eat fresh over the Winter?
Or black carrots, purple cauliflower and pink celery?
The world of gardening is expanding daily – and a lot of these exciting new varieties are down to two women who’ve founded She Grows Veg.
It’s a heirloom seed company that scours the world for different and original plants – that you can grow right here in the UK.
Heirloom seeds are varieties of vegetables that have been passed down from generation to generation for at least 50 years.
They are open-pollinated, meaning they reproduce naturally through pollinators like bees, birds, or wind, rather than through controlled breeding like hybrids.
And, as She Grows Veg founder Lucy Hutchings tells Sun Gardening: “They’ve stood the test of time, and not only that, the flavours are better, they come in a rainbow of shapes, sizes, and colours that you won’t find in the supermarket, and you can save seeds from your harvest and replant them year after year.”
New Encyclopaedia of heritage seeds published this month
FORMER chef Mitch McCulloch has travelled the world to find exciting heritage seeds – and has a new book out The Seed Hunter.
He told Sun Gardening: “When you plant a seed and tend to it to harvest, it gives you a real sense of satisfaction which is almost lacking in modern life.
“Once you couple that with actually growing something which has a rich historical and cultural significance – like beans that were brought by the Cherokee Nation along the Trail of Tears – it’s a direct piece of history which we can hold, we can look at, we can smell, we can taste and we can use to inspire other people to to value the food in a different way. Hopefully this will ensure that the future generations are going to be able to taste these flavours from our past.
“Most heirlooms are the result of family breeding projects or small scale production with real emotions attached to them and they’re not just big corporate seed companies that are looking to produce a crop that is homogenized with a thick skin that can travel.”
He added: “I’m so excited my encyclopaedia of heirloom seeds is finally here. It’s jammed packed with rare and unique heritage food crops. “Discover the history, folklore, and fairytale for these amazing heirlooms, the varieties I recommend, plus recipe ideas as a nod to my chef past. “I’ve also included an 35 page interactive directory of seed sources to help people track down the rarest of seeds.
Currently She Grows packets of Storage tomatoes are just £4.50, black carrots are £3.50 and purple cauliflower is £2.95.
Working with friend Kate Cotterill, the pair set up the company just last year – and have already won gold at Chelsea and Hampton flower shows. .
Lucy said: “ We’ve visited amazing seed farmers and plant developers around the world who have just devoted their lives to a certain type of vegetable.
“So we have an amazing carrot grower in Japan and we’ve just connected with this guy who collects storage tomatoes in America.”
“Or there’s a cave bean that was found in an archaeological dig. It’s 1,500 years old and it was found in a ceramic pot and the archaeologists decided to try and germinate it and it did.
“We now sell it and it’s gorgeous. The little beans are almost like brown and white cow print.
“We just feel it’s really important that absolutely everyone on the planet realises they can grow something.
So we have winter greens out now, a container range and seeds you can do on your windowsill, balcony and garden.”
Kate added: “Our seed packets are little Instagram posts all on their own with a QR code that takes you to a YouTube video to help you get growing.
“We’ve really ripped up the rule book. We’re passionate about heirlooms and ornamentals, and we want everyone to have the best experience possible.”
News, tips, hacks and a leaf blower competition
NEWS! A gardening charity is asking people to adopt at-risk heritage seeds to make sure they continue to bloom for future generations. The Heritage Seed Library, run by sustainable gardening charity Garden Organic, holds the National Collection of Heritage Vegetables and works tirelessly to grow precious heirloom vegetables that due to commercial growing practices may be lost forever. Now it’s asking the public to help keep vegetables,’ in circulation – including tomato ‘Marianna’s Peace, Broadbean Martock, and Pea ‘Freer’s Mum.’. To become a Variety Champion click HERE
NEWS! Cherry Lane Garden Centres are offering kids halloween carving sessions this half term. Tickets are £6.99 with a cookie and witches brew. To find out more click HERE
SAVE! GET your seeds in the grounds or pots with a Farrer Tanner Burgon and Ball dibber for £12. Or buy one for £3.99 from espares.co.uk
WIN! TWO lucky winners will get a Cobra leaf blower – worth £119 each. To enter fill in THIS form. For more details, visit www.thesun.co.uk/COBRACOMP or write to Sun Cobra Comp, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Ends 23.59GMT 02/.11.24 T&Cs apply.
TOP TIP To best store seeds, put them in paper envelopes in an airtight container – containing something to absorb moisture. Silica gel is best, but dry charcoal and newspaper are also good.
THIS WEEK’S JOB Organise and clean your greenhouse, keep planting daffodils and allium bulbs – hold off until November for the tulips. Rake your lawn of leaves, but leave some in the beds.
Follow me @biros_and_bloom
HE’S a real life Action Man who at 52 is in better condition than most men half his age.
Celebrity SAS‘s Rudy Reyes has no intention of taking his foot off the gas any time soon and insists he’ll be ripped and fighting fit well into his 60s.
The former Marine gave us a glimpse of his impressive muscular physique ahead of Monday’s series closer, which saw Georgia Harrison and New Zealander Lani Daniels as the only two stars who passed the demanding course.
When asked just how long he can maintain his shredded body and lead celebs on the programme by example, animated Rudy replied: “Bro, okay. Stand by.”
The American star removed his waistcoat and proudly flexed his sculpted biceps.
He exclaimed: “Bro. Fu**king 53.
“53 in six weeks. Your bro still got it. Your bro still got it.
“So yeah, I’d say I got action hero status at least another 10 years [laughs].
“Pretty cool, huh, brother? Well, you know what? We’re all getting older, but we’re also getting smarter.”
Even when he’s on the road, there’s no let-up in the fitness fanatic’s bodily regime. He showed us the wooden push-up bars that accompany him in hotel rooms and let him build his chest even when there isn’t access to a gym.
Larger than life Rudy had a tall order when he stepped into the shoes vacated by former show star Ant Middleton in 2022.
But he quickly and confidently put his stamp on the show and any doubts over the former sergeant’s credentials were put to bed.
His bold character been integral to its continued success, which is reflected in the way people in the UK embrace him whenever he visits.
Ahead of our interview, he recounted how a car full of blokes shouted and cheered his name as they drove by him near London Bridge, which he described as “wonderful”.
The multi-faced star is nicknamed the “ballerina of violence”, but there are some attributes he has that the UK fandom might not be acquainted with.
“I do many things,” he said. “Explosives, cyber work, paratrooping, combat dive, all kinds of stuff. Really good mixed martial art fighter.
“I wouldn’t be the ballerina of violence if I didn’t first go through the baseline and crucible of selection.”
Fun and laughs might not be the first word that springs to mind from anyone who’s seen gruelling Celebrity SAS.
But Rudy can provide both in spades when necessary.
“I think one thing I don’t know if the UK audience knows about me is I got a great sense of humor,” he said.
“I’m not a comedian, but I’ve got a great sense of humor and I hope this comes across. My real talent, my greatest talent in this world is my positive motivation and that positive mental attitude sometimes carries the course when it’s really dismal and dreary or when the fun meter, we call it the fun meter, when it’s tanking in the red.
“When the fun meter’s tanking in the red, that’s when you call Rudy Reyes and I bring that fun meter back up.”
There’s no denying a conversation with Rudy is a spirit-boosting experience.
IN the mid 80s she was part of a formidable group of emerging talent that was, perhaps unfairly, dubbed The Brat Pack.
Though Charli XCX has very much rebranded the term Brat into a positive this year, it had adverse repercussions for actress Ally Sheedy four decades ago as she struggled to break free from the cloak it put around her and peers like Demi Moore, Robert Downey Jr and Rob Lowe, among others.
The moniker, a play on the famous Rat Pack nickname given to 50s and 60s crooners like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole – came to be after a bunch of young up and comers appeared alongside one another in multiple coming of age movies like St Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club.
At the height of those films’ success, Ally didn’t feel particularly concerned, and why would she, as one of the industry’s hottest new stars.
She told Vanity Fair in 2022: “Movies and working in film and TV and all that— it was this all-consuming love affair in my 20s. This is what I want to do….
“So I understand myself in my 20s, and I also understand how dangerous it can be to simply decide this is my path—period, end of story, nothing else matters. But that’s in your 20s. You’re passionate.”
However, that attitude began to change as she became increasingly pigeon-holed and was urged to change her style in order to compete for more prominent roles.
The shallow nature of Hollywood irked her and she had no desire to transform herself into a stereotypical ‘pretty girl’ to land roles.
It was something she had enough difficulty doing while in character during a pivotal scene in The Breakfast Club when her character, Allison, is given a glam makeover that then makes her more attractive to boys.
She told The Independent in 2020: “I never liked the makeover. Listen, it was Hollywood in the Eighties. They wanted to take the ugly duckling and make her into a swan.
“As far as I was concerned, that wasn’t what I was doing with that character, but that was what they wanted.”
Ally lamented the misogynistic culture within Hollywood at the time and the pressure on women to conform to the standards set out by the “white men’s club” in charge.
She said: “Acting started to just feel more and more to me like something that I didn’t want my life to necessarily be about.”
Despite her disillusionment, Ally has remained in the industry, though has been selective with the roles she has taken and the people she works with.
In 1998, the romantic comedy High Art renewed interest in her acting career.
Ally played alluring, party-loving photographer Lucy, who lives with her heroin-addict girlfriend in the flat above aspiring high fashion snapper Syd.
After a chance meeting, Lucy and Syd’s lives start to become complicatedly entwined both professionally and romantically.
Ally has gone on record as calling it her favourite role, loving every aspect of it from the direction to the script and filmography.
Now 62, mum-of-one Ally splits her time between acting and working as a professor in the theatre department at the City University of New York.
She recently spoke out about her class and how she deals with students who might not be as committed to the course as they should.
“There’s so much to get out of this class, it’s really great,” she said. “If you don’t avail yourself of what’s here, then that’s on you. If I can see a particular kid who’s on their phone all the time, I’m not going to say anything. It’s just you’re missing out.”