There is a terrific interest in vegetable and fruit growing at the moment and yet there aren't many gardens where you can see them growing in abundance. But I recently discovered a gem of a walled garden planted with heritage varieties popular in the Victorian era.

It is part of the Cogges Manor Farm Museum in Witney, a venue already known for its historic farmhouse, chickens, milking cows and farm horses.

Cogges is already deservedly popular with families and school parties, but it should be added to the gardener's list of desirable places to visit too. Once you walk across the farmyard and disappear through the green garden gate you go back a 100 years or more to the world of the productive kitchen garden.

There are four rectangular plots devoted to root crops, brassicas with pumpkins, soft fruit and peas and beans intersected with paths lined with lavender, herbs and roses.

In Victorian days the head gardener supplied the mob-capped cook with all the fruit, flowers and vegetables for the family and household. This tradition is still repeated at Cogges today and the cook was busy rustling up an apple pie on the kitchen range, using windfalls from the orchard.

I don't know of another vegetable garden in England still supplying a traditional Victorian kitchen with produce.

Chris Munday is the innovative (and only) gardener here. His cloth cap and spotted neckerchief add to the aura of times past and in these days when many children think that potatoes spend all their lives in plastic bags, this garden teaches children about the nurturing relationship between gardening and food.

"We aren't grand here," Chris said. "We're not trying to be a Blenheim, we're trying to recreate a humble farmer's kitchen garden."

Chris's personal enthusiasm for researching old varieties adds real authenticity and the lines of vegetables and fruit are edged with cut flowers and herbs for the household, creating a cottage garden charm and there are seats for lingering.

"We stuff lots of varieties in to make it more interesting" Chris explained, as he went about picking runner beans from The Czar', a white-flowered variety introduced at the end of the 19th century. It doubles up as a green bean and a dried butter bean and it was highly popular with gardeners for more than 100 years.

But, in 1988, The Czar' was threatened with deletion from the National List - until the HDRA (now Garden Organic) saved it. Garden Organic run a Heritage Seed Library (see below for details) and have conserved many valuable varieties for posterity. This is imperative, as, like rare breeds of animal, old varieties have important genetic traits that may be valuable in the future. "The great thing about growing these old varieties is that they were selected for flavour, and not for commercial considerations like shelf life and ability to travel," Chris explained.

Good flavour has meant that some older varieties have endured for many a year. The leek Musselburgh'for instance (bred in 1820) is still widely grown due to its hardiness, flavour and vigour.

There's one other major advantage too. Modern vegetable varieties are often F1 hybrids bred to mature at the same time - older varieties tend to have long cropping seasons that last for several weeks.

Having a whole row of cauliflowers all ready to cut within five days may be commercially viable, butgardeners prefer one or two every week for two or three months or so.

Many of the Victorian varieties were very ornamental and handsome too.You can see the Purple Podded Pea' which has pink flowers and dark pods and the handsome Bath Cos Lettuce', a pre-1880 variety grown for its flavour and crunch. It was advertised as "a tempting and refreshing bite for the hungry sportsman after a hard day's labour" when"thrown onto a heap on snowy linen".

Beetroot Bull's Blood' is the only surviving decorative-leaved Victorian variety still grown and it has wine-red crinkled foliage and could grace any flowerbed.

Chris leaves his Bull's Blood' in to show the visitors "although it needs picking young" he advised. The five-coloured Silver beet (now namedRainbow Chard' ) was another Victorian delicacy. The pink, white, orange, cream and yellow stems are topped with bright-green leaf and both leaf and stem are edible and highly ornamental.

Rhubarb was a great staple too. It could be forced in early winter to produce pliable, champagne-pink stems and then left to grow on for summer use.

Victoria' was (and still is)an excellent variety of rhubarb to grow and Chris has managed to find her consort, Prince Albert', and reunite them once again close to the quince, pear and plum trees trained against the sunniest wall. The Royal Sovereign' strawberries, designed to follow on from the rhubarb, can be found in another part of the garden and they are "full of flavour".

Potatoes speared with feathers hope to deter the birds, for this organic garden doesn't use netting or fleece.

You can also see some of the Victorian standbys that have all-but disappeared from modern gardens. Skirret, a root vegetable with thin, white roots, was highly popular a hundred years ago.

It was left in the ground all winter and served as a back-up once the carrots ran out. But the children's favourite vegetable is the pumpkin and they take up a large area. All the varieties of pumpkin and squash will be harvested and used during the October half term at special events.

But the gardening won't stop then. There are apple trees to be winter pruned, seeds to save, loads of manure to be moved and spread, root crops to lift and store before next year's April opening. I know I'll be going back next year and, if you live locally, consider buying a season ticket, they are excellent value.