The Seed Hunter

Auteur
Mitch McCulloch is a London-born chef with a keen interest in flavours and the provenance of food. He is creating a market and forest garden on 4 acres in the New Forest (UK), where he works in tune with the local habitat, community, and practices no dig (collaborating with Charles Dowding). Media work includes: a six-part mini series for BBC Radio Suffolk; a segment on BBC Gardeners' World; speaking at the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival; BBC One's Escape to the Country; and collaborated with the RSPB on Instagram videos to help save bees.

Résumé

Why grow the same dull vegetables and herbs filling every supermarket shelf? If you're putting in the effort and growing your own, better make it something sensational!

There's a thrilling diversity of rare and unusual heirloom plants out there: a riot of beauty, colour, and flavour that can only be experienced by growing your own. So saddle up and join the trail blazed by Mitch the Seed Hunter as he shows you how to source, grow, and enjoy the most amazing crops from around the world.

The antithesis of mass-produced hybrids and genetically modified seed, heirloom crops provide a connection with the past, seeds that have been passed down through generations, rescued from oblivion, and preserved by a dedicated community of growers.

From Italian flat onions to pink broad beans, apple-sized melons beloved of Queen Anne, to purple-and-white Gniff carrots from Switzerland (almost lost to extinction), orange okra from Japan, and ancient Aztec broccoli - Mitch shares his passion for growing them all and making the most of their incredible flavours.