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 gardene ..read more

Using perennials in CSA’s and market gardens was held online in the depths of winter when we were dreaming of the growing year ahead. Mandy Barber of Incredible Vegetables and Ryan Sandford-Blackburn of Earthed Up! got together to explore and present the potential of perennials. We looked at the benefits, which species may make sense, perennials for seed crops, integration into an annual layout and use at the edges. The webinar is designed to leave you with an idea of how you could add delicious perennial crops to your design, reducing inputs and increasing climate resilience. Mandy Barber is ..read more

How do we grow crops resilient enough to adapt to climate change? In this workshop organised by the Soil Association at the Organic Growers Alliance’s Organic Matters 2022 conference, we explore perennial vegetables, which can provide so many solutions to the environmental situations we are facing, and edible cacti. Chair: Hugh Blogg (Soil Association). Speakers Mandy Barber (Incredible Vegetables) and Elki Guillen (Freelance Chef, Food and Cactae researcher ..read more

Pigeon pea – Cajanus cajun is a drought tolerant nitrogen fixing shrubby perennial legume that can live for about 5 years. It is widely grown in India, Africa and central america where it is a staple crop and also used for making dal. Also known as Congo peas, no-eye peas, red gram and gandules. It is also frost tender which makes it tricky to grow in the UK, with pods and seeds not usually forming in time as flowering is usually triggered by shortening day length just as the autumn frosts arrive. Last year we grew a number of plants which grew vigorously but didn’t flower and sadly were kill ..read more

We have had the busiest year of all time as the passion for perennial vegetables has grown. We expanded into our huge new polytunnel back in May and have been propagating and diversifying what we do, so we can begin to offer you more plants and seeds for your perennial vegetable garden. Below are some pics of our flourishing perennial plant nursery and outdoor space at Baddaford farm, ten minutes from our main site in Ashburton. Plants are waiting to go off to their new homes and a nice pic of Yacon and Dwarf Jerusalem artichokes growing out in the field back in October. Our new plant nurser ..read more

 We are going under cover! We have just had our busiest year at Incredible vegetables, the demand for our plants and seeds over the last 12 months has sky rocketed as many people have been learning about and embracing the benefits of perennial vegetables. One thing we have struggled with ( as a small team of two) is to be able to propagate enough plants for a continuous supply all year round. Well, our dream to produce more plants and a much more diverse array of perennial edible plants has just come true!  A huge new tunnel space for research, seed production and propagating more pe ..read more

It’s been a busy year at Incredible Vegetables with lots of seed saving projects and new perennial and interesting food crops being tested. We have produced our first large batch of Skirret seed, have grown some very large anchote roots and fruits (Coccinia abyssinica) and are now underway with Giant Ulleung celery (Dystaenia takisimana), Ashitaba (Angelica keiskei), Aster Scaber, Ligularia fischeri and Sochan (Rudbeckia laciniata)  Anchote -Coccinia abyssinica, an Ethiopian root crop We grew anchote for the first time and plants were given special treatment in the polytunnel. Anchote pl ..read more

This article published in The Organic Grower is written by Mandy Barber, who describes herself as “a grower, researcher of perennial edible plants, budding plant breeder and seed saver. In this article, aimed at smaller scale farmers and market gardeners, she describes some of her favourite leafy greens, roots and alliums, including some guidelines for growing and the different ways in which they can be used. FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS: • Many plants can provide food for decades from a single planting and often come into their own during ‘the hungry gap.’ They have the capacity to survive ..read more

Product review mini tunnel from First Tunnels  The lovely folks at First tunnels sent us one of their not so mini – mini tunnels to test out and review. The mini tunnels are 4ft (1.22m) wide and available in three different lengths with the option of a polythene or net cover. We received the largest of the three at 4ft x 15ft (1.22 x 4.57m) and were very excited to try another of their products having had one of their larger tunnels on our site for the last 6 years. Those that have a polytunnel know, that once you have one, you always dream of more…just think of all the extra plants you ..read more

How do we grow crops resilient enough to adapt to climate change? In this workshop organised by the Soil Association at the Organic Growers Alliance’s Organic Matters 2022 conference, we explore perennial vegetables, which can provide so many solutions to the environmental situations we are facing, and edible cacti. Chair: Hugh Blogg (Soil Association). Speakers Mandy Barber (Incredible Vegetables) and Elki Guillen (Freelance Chef, Food and Cactae researcher ..read more