Heirloom plants have a past. Some people draw the line at the year 1900, some at 1945. I have adapted a more personal definition. An “heirloom” is any variety which is worth keeping as part of our plant heritage, past or present. The worth of a cultivated plant lies in its value to us, the role it has plaid or play in our gardens to shelter, inspire or feed us. Some varieties come with a rich history, some are completely intertwined with the culture of a people. Corn comes to mind when thinking of Central America, or potatoes in the Andes. Some varieties have traveled alongside humanity, and good seeds were treasured by early settlers whose survival depended on them. Sometimes, it is a tragedy which ties a nation to its food source like the great potato-caused famine of Ireland.

Holding on to your past is reason enough to preserve heirloom plants. I will add another one: diversity. If you paint, would you rather have 5 colors or 50? Well, this year I got to pick my tomatoes (seeds) among literally thousands of varieties. Just reading through all the descriptions took a couple of weeks and was a tad overwhelming but I survived the process by sticking to my personal needs. Otherwise it was fascinating to discover a world of new colors for tomatoes (purple on red, orange on green, yellow on red, etc...) and read accounts of other gardeners for each seed. Access to this vast universe is made possible by Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit organization and the biggest seed exchange service in the world with 8000 members. Membership is available to anyone for $30 a year (phone: 563-382 5990). This year I was offering the seeds of a giant butternut squash I got from a Berryville family. It got some notice in spite of the other 12,000 seeds vying for attention and it was great fun to send it to a few other gardeners coast to coast.

Next year I shall go a step further and, along with my general gardening vision, I will start collecting varieties which have been successfully grown in our area. And I invite you to join me! Our region has a long and rich homesteading past. It had at various points of its history apple orchards, tomato and strawberry farms. This past can be rediscovered to our advantage by reintroducing old heirloom varieties which grew well and tasted great.

Otherwise we will let our food system spread its uniformity to all corners of the country where fewer bigger farms using fewer bigger seed companies will let us believe that tomatoes can only be red.

last modified on: Monday November 10, 2008 06:41 AM -0600