Selling Great-tasting Heirlooms

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Not everything is local. The Seed Savers Exchange often is the source of a "new" variety. And the GSHSS has access to the U.S. Department of Agriculture seed banks as well.

In the fall, a special growers report is sent to GSHSS market grower members. This report details the results of that year's trials. "So," Cavanaugh stresses, "a grower in our organization will always be on top of things, with a wide variety of new vegetables they can test themselves."

Sometimes growers don't even test the seeds. Based on the credibility of GSHSS reports and familiarity with their marketplace, farmers sometimes skip the trial stage and go right to production. Ed Lidzbarski in Jamesburg, New Jersey, for instance, operator of E.R. & Son Farm, is also the largest wholesaler of organic vegetables in the Garden State. When GSHSS reported on its trial of the `Yellow Out/Red In' tomato, he immediately asked for enough seed to grow a full crop. "He was fully confident of his ability to sell it," Cavanaugh reports.

Lidzbarski is one of several GSHSS members who actually are selling heirloom plants and produce to supermarkets - a sure sign that they have been mainstreamed. But it often takes a little creative marketing to land such accounts, because heirlooms, by their very nature, have to sell at a higher retail price than standard varieties.

Recently, GSHSS has gotten more heavily involved in helping farmers market heirlooms as well as grow them. "The way you have to sell heirlooms," Cavanaugh says, "is to get people to taste them. No matter how you're marketing, whether it's a farm stand, a farmer's market, a CSA, or selling to restaurants, we always recommend you cut some up and give them to your customers to taste." He adds that if you're marketing to restaurants it's important that your contact, in most cases, be the chef, not the owner. "Once you get the customer to taste an heirloom, they're not going to be buying hybrids anymore. They're coming back to you. It's the same thing whether it's garlic, or tomatoes, sweet peppers or any of the fresh stuff."

Catalpa Ridge's Rich Sisti adds that you have to know how your customers do business. With supermarkets, for instance, you can't be delivering one box of lettuces every three weeks. If you can't supply- them several boxes a week throughout the season, they're not interested in dealing with you."

Heirloom Seed Sources

MAINE SEED SAVING NETWORK
PO Box 126
Penobscot, Maine 04476
207-326-0751

UNDERWOOD GARDENS
1414 Zimmerman
Woodstock, Illinois 60098
815-338-6277
www.underwoodgardens.com

BAKER CREEK HEIRLOOM SEED CO.
2278 Baker Creek Road Mansfield, Missouri 65704
417-924-8917
www.rareseeds.com

SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE & SEED SAVERS HEIRLOOM SEEDS & GIFTS
3076 N. Winn Road Decorah, Iowa 52101 319-3825990 www.seedsavers.org

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