Perennial Veg: promise and propagation, kicked off the 2024 Oxford Real Farming conference with a packed out room of eager delegates. Mandy Barber from Incredible Vegetables, Guy Singh-Watson (Riverford) and Tom Hartley (Soil Association) presented a fantastic session on how we can move forward with perennial vegetables, why they are so important and ideas to scale up propagation as well as a slide show of a selection of Mandy’s favourite perennial vegetables to grow, followed by questions and discussion. (Held Thurs 4th Jan 2024).
Perennial veg has been taking off for years with home gardeners and allotmenteers but, whilst some classic examples, such as artichokes and asparagus, may be produced by commercial veg growers, uptake remains limited. Hear from Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson on what’s caught his attention about the potential of perennials, expert perennial grower and founder of Incredible Vegetables, Mandy Barber, revealing the diversity of options perennials present, and get a debrief on micropropagation as a possible means to increase production from Tom Hartley, Senior Certification Officer for the Soil Association. Speakers Guy Singh-Watson Mandy Barber Tom Hartley Chair Carolyn Coxe.