Corn hulls and seed ready for next season at Heritage Food Crops Research Trust.
Corn hulls and seed ready for next season at Heritage Food Crops Research Trust.
Heritage Food Crops Research Trust is a charitable organisation based in Whanganui, which aims to improve human health through the research and promotion of heritage plant-based foods. So why is its ultimate goal to become redundant? Kem Ormond finds out more.
The Heritage Food Crops Research Trust has beenoperating as a charitable research trust for 18 years on its two-hectare property in Springvale, Whanganui.
“The trust is always on the lookout for heritage fruit and vegetable varieties that may have superior health benefits,” Mark Christensen, research director for the trust, said.
“Along with apples and tomatoes, we have collected varieties of beans, carrots, wheat, kūmara, kale, plums, prunes, pears, peaches and feijoas, and we collect seeds and other propagating material with an eye towards future research.
“We cultivate and conserve these plant varieties at our Whanganui operations base that includes greenhouses, a nursery and an orchard.”
According to the trust’s website, “the property overall has been managed organically for 27 years and has established shelter and several water sources”.
Various vegetables are also collected and grown, with a focus on traditional climbing bean varieties, pumpkins and kūmara.
The trust imported 10 heritage wheat varieties and is engaged in bulking up the seed for future research on gluten intolerance.
According to the trust’s website, this is all managed by “an enthusiastic team of experienced volunteers, with a diverse range of research, gardening, cultivation, plant and food knowledge and expertise.”
While the trust has been widely known for promoting the benefits of the Monty’s Surprise apple, orange tomatoes, corn and beans have long been grown, trialled and distributed around the country.
Apart from growing and researching natural foods for their disease-inhibiting abilities, the trust focuses on sharing the seeds, plants, and trees it believes are necessary for a healthy lifestyle.
“As with any ‘public good initiative’, our ultimate goal is to become redundant, in other words, for there to no longer be a need in the community for people to source high-value nutritional and medicinal food, because they have access to it already,” Christensen said.
Heritage Food Crops Research Trust's research director, Mark Christensen, with a Monty's Surprise apple.
Of course, there is still a long way before that becomes a reality, but the trust is excited to have reached a milestone, with a New Zealand family-owned seed company, Kings Seeds, now listing some of the trust’s seeds in its catalogue and on its website.
This will increase the availability of these important seeds and provide a win-win for the trust and Kings Seeds, which will gain access to New Zealand-grown spray-free heirloom seed.
Charlotte Connoley, general manager of Kings Seeds, said, “Kings Seeds felt they had a great platform to offer to [the trust], so they could get their seeds out to a wider audience.
“Already, the interest in the seeds is unbelievable with bean, corn and tomato varieties racing out the door.
“Kings Seeds realise that, since Covid, food security and food resilience have become very important to many New Zealanders and being able to procure seeds from local New Zealand growers is particularly important to us.
“We have always admired the work done by [the trust] and are really thrilled to have formed this partnership where we can now add their high health and heirloom seeds to our catalogue and online.”
