Selling Great-tasting Heirlooms

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Savvy market growers, naturally, want to capitalize on this trend. Their problem: Tracking down enough seed.

For the home gardener, obtaining heirloom seed is no big thing. Many seed companies now offer heirlooms, and there are numerous seed swapping organizations and bio-diversity groups whose sole purpose is to preserve these varieties by distributing seed in one manner or another (see Heirloom Seed Sources ). But too often, this means providing only enough seed for a sample grow-out. The idea is that the gardener plant those seeds the first year in order to produce enough new seed for a full crop in subsequent years.

"This is difficult for the commercial grower," points out Rich Sisti, honcho of Catalpa Ridge Farm in Wantage, New Jersey. Sisti sells his produce at three different locations; one in downtown Manhattan, one in Hoboken, and one in his home town. in addition, he grows tomato transplants for a supermarket chain. "I can't deal with just 25 seeds. I mean, what am I going to do with that few?

One solution for Sisti, along with about 80 other farmers and market growers, is the Garden State Heirloom Seed Society. Like most grassroots heirloom seed organizations, GSHSS has home gardeners, market growers, and farmers among its 600 members. Unlike most other such groups, at GSHSS the emphasis is on helping the farmers and market growers.

"The hallmark of GSHSS," says founder Joe Cavanaugh, "is that we provide our growers with seed at no cost. This lets them trial out numerous varieties of heirloom vegetables, and stay up to date on what's popular." Some of his members, he points out, test 50 or more varieties a year. "We encourage them to save their own seed," he notes, "because in most areas seeds adapt to the area where they're grown, and you will get better production if you save the seed yourself." While growers are urged to save seed, it is not a requirement by any means. Sisti, for instance, does not save seed because of time constraints. "We deliver to our members through October," he points out. "When you are busy making deliveries, it's hard to spend the time it takes to save seed."

GSHSS grew out of Cavanaugh's own interest in heirloom vegetables. He'd been a gardener from the time he was 9 years old. "I specifically remember my mother going out to buy me plants," he recalls. "The two varieties I tried were `Big Boy,' a hybrid, and the old 'Rutgers' variety. I can vividly remember a difference in the taste."

Later in life he became a Civil War reenactor. His interest in living history and his interest in heirlooms created a natural mix. "As a reenactor you can dress up, you can do reenactments, you can do camps. What you cannot do is actually experience what the Civil War was like. One thing you can do is eat their food. Trying to seek that out is what really propelled me into heirlooms."

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