NOSTALGIA YOU CAN EAT

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Mmm, Mmm, Good

Dremann and many other seed suppliers insist that the impetus behind the heirloom trend is neither environmental nor political; it's taste.

"People want the best tasting produce they can get," he stresses. "After doing all that work in the garden, why grow something that has no taste?"

Darrell "The Tomato Man" Merrell couldn't agree more. "I was looking for vegetables that had the flavor I remember as a kid," he says, "and started growing heirloom tomatoes for my own table." Now Merrell grows and sells heirloom tomato plants on a retail level in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he also founded the Sooner State Heirloom Seed S ociety. "I'd say 95% of people will not save seeds. But after tasting heirlooms, they will buy the plants or the actual veggies if they can find them." Merrell typically sells 20,000 heirloom plants annually, growing out 60 to 80 varieties each year.

Thus matter of taste cannot be stressed enough. Flavor is the criterion for heirloom varieties. Even market growers are discovering that people will pay a premium for veggies that taste like veggies. Joe Cavanaugh of Delaware, New Jersey, started Garden State Heirloom Seed Society to promote the idea that market gardeners can make money with heirlooms - either at farm stands, farmers markets or through retail establishments. He currently has 93 growers in his organization, and two supermarket chains have just agreed to stock their output. Similar organizations, modeled on Cavanaugh's, are starting up in Oklahoma, New York and Rhode Island.

But while the retail market for heirloom veggies continues to bloom, it is in the home garden that these varieties truly stand to find their niche - and not just because of their unbeatable taste. Heirlooms are perfect for your backyard plot; here's why:

Staggered ripening dates. Hybrids are designed to ripen more or less at the same time to facilitate mechanized harvesting. But for the home gardener, vegetables that ripen over time make more sense, as they are used on an ongoing basis.

Size, color and varietal choice. Hybrids are designed to have uniform color, size and shape. Any tomato that isn't red, for instance, is considered a "specialty" item. Similarly, all snap beans should be green, all eggplants black, etc. Not only is this lack of biodiversity dangerous, it encourages the belief that these are the only choices. Not so. Heirloom vegetables are available in an amazing number of varieties. In addition to the aforementioned 600 kinds of tomato there are dozens of choices among pole beans, a number of cucumber varietals, and every conceivable shape, size and color of squash.

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