Heirloom Vegetables: 6 Advantages Compared to Hybrids

(Page 3 of 3)

June 30, 2009
By Amanda Kimble-Evans 
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6. Many heirlooms have wonderful stories of how they came to America.

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In many cases, these heirloom vegetables have been grown for many centuries all around the world. What a great feeling — to be connected through tiny, magical seeds to so many other gardeners from so long ago!

Try Heirloom Vegetables in Your Backyard

To learn more about the history of heirloom vegetables and how to grow and cook with them, we highly recommend Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving and Cultural History by MOTHER EARTH NEWS contributing editor William Woys Weaver, which is now available on CD. And for heirloom vegetable mail-order seed catalogs with huge selections and glorious photos, top choices include the free catalogs from Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Creating an heirloom that is perfectly suited for your particular garden can take years of seed saving and planting out. If you want immediate gratification, you can do a little legwork before selecting the variety of heirlooms you want to use. Ask around. Are there farmers at the local market who always have heirloom tomatoes or other gorgeous and unusual products? Talk to them about the varieties and what their experiences have been over the last few growing seasons. Dig into your family or community tree to see if any of your elders can recall names of varieties that grew well in the region or were particularly memorable. You may stumble across a gardener still growing a family heirloom.

“A particular variety can stay in a family for many generations and have quite a history,” Kaiser says. “They can be passed down just like other heirlooms — like a grandfather clock.”

Amanda Kimble-Evans is a writer and editor specializing in organic gardening and farming. Growing up surrounded by small farms and large gardens in rural Pennsylvania, Amanda was raised to have a close relationship with the food on her plate — a relationship she continues to cultivate at home and through her work.
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  • headred 8/26/2009 9:39:19 AM

    I planted about 5 heirloom varieties this year and boy are they fantastic! I will be saving seeds to continue this in the years to come. Good article! www.whatupduck.com

  • Raymond Overlin 7/19/2009 11:46:05 PM

    Dear Mother people
    First let me express my thanks for your publication.
    My concern is organic seeds. Can you tell me the organic seed co. are honest and would ship good old fashioned seeds like we use to have. I have found that the seeds I buy are so hybrid that all my plants grow big and beautiful, but no fruit.
    My tomatoes do not ripen untill very late. My beets, corn, beans, spinish, well every plant is next to worthless. I'm 76 years old and starving to death before my time. My wife and I have to take vitimans to the point of not having room for food in our stomchs. Please help us young folks. Respectfully. Ray O

  • roni 7/19/2009 7:17:24 PM

    heirloom plants, in general, are the way to go, in my opinion.
    My Mom and Dad saved tomato seed, mainly Germans, and they were always the most flavorful tomatoes we grew. I positively refuse to eat those flavorless things that are sold under the guise of tomatoes that can be found in grocery stores, irregardless of the season.
    And trust me, if you think there is a difference in tomatoes, just try heirloom green beans. (Everyone know that at this time of year green beans and tomatoes go hand in hand.) If you haven't tried them, you don't know what you are missing.

  • Alice 7/7/2009 1:22:05 PM

    I planted heirloom tomatoes this year from plants raised in Arkansas and just ate the first ripe one right from the garden. Fantastic..and yes the juice ran down my chin! Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Striped German, Oxheart Orange, and Lemon Boy are the varieties I planted. The plants are the healthiest, strongest plants I have had in years! They are loaded with blooms and all size green tomatoes..I am thrilled with the old-time tomato taste and the huge production! Once you eat "heirloom" you will never go back to any other!!

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