Be Part Of A Grow Your Own Veg Revolution!  

Innovative Seed Range Launch | More Nutritious | More Beautiful | Open Pollinated

She Grows Veg is launching a range of seeds that vegetable gardeners, allotmenteers, home growers and homesteaders have been crying out for.

Why the seed range?

During and post Covid, home veg growing exploded and increased by around 44%. By 2022, a YouGov survey found that 35% of UK adults grow their own fruit, vegetables or herbs, yet 87% own a garden – that’s 52% of garden owners who don’t grow veg and only grow ornamentals – how do we convert them and encourage them to use their outdoor space to feed their families? We believe it’s more important than ever, in the cost of living crisis to get people growing their own food. Our range of veg seed that grows into delicious, nutritious and visually aspirational produce will entice growers, partnered with helpful video tutorials to help people get started.  

How did She Grows Veg begin?

She Grows Veg was started by Lucy Hutchings, who has been sharing her love of heirloom vegetables with people all over the world for years through her Instagram account.  Check her out on Instagram – @shegrowsveg.  Lucy has over 173,000 followers who have long coveted the incredible edibles that Lucy grows.  Lucy’s followers have been begging for her to share the source of her seeds and until now many of the varieties just haven’t been widely available in the UK and further afield and some were even on the verge of extinction. 

Those requests from the lovely She Grows Veg followers have worked and Lucy is launching the She Grows Veg seed range with business partner Kate Cotterill via the online shop on their website www.shegrowsveg.com.  

Why is our range different?

Growers have little choice but to buy their seed from big seed companies and retailers. These companies mass produce their seed and focus on creating hybrids that resist pests on an agricultural scale and cheap seed that grows veg lacking in flavour and nutritional value.  What they lose is the beautiful look of rare and unusual heritage crops in all the colours of the rainbow.  They prioritise function, sacrifice flavour and rely on closed pollination which is just not nature’s way.

Here at She Grows Veg we’re super excited to be bringing the solution to all the wonderful veg growers out there.  A range of rare, unusual, open pollinated seeds that produce vegetables and edible flowers packed with both flavour and nutrition and are show stopping in appearance.  There are also heritage veg seeds that are at risk of going extinct.  We’re working with the Heritage Seed Library to bring some of them back into commercial production for growers to enjoy.

We’re aiming to launch the range at the end of 2023 just in time for the 2024 growing season.

The packaging

We’re reimagining the old fashioned seed packet.  Seed packs haven’t changed for decades and we’ll be using stunning photography that makes the seed pack look like art and adding a QR code to the back that links to a YouTube video playlist with videos about how to sow your seeds and look after your plants and much more.  This will appeal to the next generation of growers (including complete beginners) who prefer to learn from video content and make people feel part of the growing community we’re creating.

The seed range launch summary:

• Launch in time for 2024 growing season
• Exclusively open pollinated seed, no hybrids
• The most beautiful and best tasting varieties from around the world
• A focus on food and flavour, collaborating with chefs to create recipes and comprehensive flavour profiles
• Whole team is part of the story and customers can follow the journey of the seed from propagation to harvest through social channels
• QR codes on packets will link to YouTube learning materials to help customers learn everything from how to sow, to how it tastes to recipe videos
• Beautiful and collectable seed packets with stunning photography
• Work with the Heritage Seed Library to bring nearly extinct varieties back to commercial availability
• Work primarily with smaller local growers and businesses

How can you help?

To get this exciting new venture off the ground we need your help.  We’ve created loads of fantastic perks that reward crowdfunders in many ways.  With everything from early access to the incredible seed varieties, being the named individual responsible for saving an endangered veg variety and some truly special experiences.

How will we use the funds?

Getting a seed range off the ground is more complicated than you might expect!  We have to register every variety with DEFRA, our regulator, buy a seed sales license, grow the plants and harvest the seed, package the seed, create nearly 100 instructional videos to help our growers and much more!  The funds will go towards all of the upfront work in getting our venture off the ground and help us bring the best range possible to our customers.

Thank you

Any support you can offer is hugely appreciated, the more we raise, the bigger the range! Please share this campaign with anyone you know with a passion for plants, vegetables and food. Let’s grow this range together!