ABSTRACT
Activist and consumerist heritage vegetable discourses construct ‘heritage’ via a series of opposites or antinomies: one positive quality (possessed by ‘heritage’ vegetables) and one negative. Another important binary pair shared with the activist discourse is the opposition of freedom and control. It is important to remember that this consumerist discourse is adopted by heritage institutions too. As the activist discourse celebrates an idea of guardians as diverse as their seeds, so there is a celebration of diversity among consumerist guardians too. There is a long tradition in British journalism of portraying occasional and unlikely campaigners as more legitimate than regular and politically committed ones. It sometimes seems the abundance of heritage gardens and orchards has a kind of accidental or effortless quality. Retailers make an effort to align themselves with the amateur home-grower and shopper and distance themselves from corporate efficiency. Catalogues and websites selling heritage seeds feature a lot of varieties originally bred in other countries.
