Miranda Whall

Meeting Dr Catherine Howarth at IBERS, Aberystwyth University, July 2023

In my first meeting with Dr Howarth a door opened to a whole new world, the world of oats, and specifically the Black Oat, Ceirch du Bach; a heritage grain that has very recently been bought back from extinction by two local farmers Iwan Evans aged 78, Gerald Miles aged 74, a folk singer Owen Shiers and Llafur Ni, Welsh for Our Grains, and the Gaia Foundation’s UK Seed Sovereignty Programme. Black Oat seeds, along with many of the other heritage grains that used to grow on every farm in Wales, are carefully preserved and monitored at 4 celsius in the Welsh Plant Breeding Station at Aberystwyth University. This beautiful seed tells not only a nostalgic story from the past but it provides a possible solution for the future. In a future where climate change is set to challenge and test generically bred and intensely farmed grains farmers will be looking again at the diverse, hardy and sustainable grains of Wales’ past to help them adapt.