Selling Great-tasting Heirlooms

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After joining the international Seed Saver's Exchange (based in Decorah, Iowa) early in it's history, Cavanaugh started growing out a wide variety of heirlooms. Not just Civil War era varieties, but any heirloom he could get his hands on. "I just couldn't believe the difference in taste compared to the hybrids we'd been growing for years. Most of the hybrids are basically horrible in taste compared to the heirlooms."

With a compelling need to share this information, Cavanaugh and his wife Roberta started a small market garden to see what sort of interest people would have. "This was in the early '90s," he recalls. "Heirlooms were known, but they weren't popular like they are today. But our customers loved everything we grew. We got nothing but superb feedback. They really wanted the heirlooms we were growing."

After three years, they decided to try a different direction. "I told Bobbi, `We're sitting on a gold mine, what are we going to do with it? Are we going to start our own farm, and really capture the market? Or are we going to use this as a vehicle to help farmers and market growers?'

"We decided we were go ing to put this so-called gold mine to work helping people. Especially here in New Jersey, where farmers are really hard-pressed with the high cost of everything. So, we formed GSHSS for that specific reason."

Ironically, the first members were gardeners, rather than market growers. "And I'd like to stress," Cavanaugh says, "that, although one of the major aims of this organization is to help farmers and market growers, the things we do are also available to help home gardeners. In fact, the bulk of our membership is not commercial growers."

But in its six years' existence, GSHSS has become a voice for the commercial production of heirloom vegetables. Providing seed is just one of the ways it supports farmers.

Each year the organization grows about 250 heirloom vegetable varieties and evaluates their flavor, productivity, pest resistance and marketability. Varieties for these trials come from numerous sources. Some are local. "If we know a farmer is growing a certain heirloom variety, we take seed for it and make sure we increase production so that we have the seed available for our members in larger quantities," he says.

"Most new hybrids are basically horrible in taste compared to the heirlooms,"

Other varieties come from people who have heard about the group's work. One bush bean came to them, for instance, from a woman in a local church who knew of their work and handed them a jar full of seed. Her mother had come through Ellis island bringing the family bean seeds with her from Italy. Now there was nobody left to grow them, and she was afraid they'd go extinct.

Another example is `Tom Patti's Italian Paste' tomato. "It comes from a fellow across the river in Pennsylvania," says the GSHSS head man, "and in my opinion it's much better than the highly touted `Amish Paste'." Tom Patti was in a farmers market in a little town and tasted this tomato variety. He liked it so much he bought a couple, scraped the seeds out, and took them home. It's been very popular ever since.

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