Monday Message - Heirloom Produce

Like family keepsakes, heirloom fruits and vegetables celebrate heritage. They are grown from seeds that have been passed down generation to generation! Read more here from kidseatright.org.

While people have been talking about heirloom vegetables for more than a decade, they have yet to reach an agreement on how to define an heirloom.  If a plant has been around for at least 50 years, it is considered to be old enough to show a history of seeds being passed down from their ancestors.  The great thing about the open-pollinated cultivars is that they have a reputation for being high quality and easy to grow. When heirloom gardeners refer to open-pollination, they mean that the next generation will look just like its parent. For example, plant a 'Brandywine' tomato, let some of the fruit mature and collect the seed, process it properly, and store it well. The next year, plant the seed and it will grow another 'Brandywine' tomato. Seed saving is a simple enough process, and gardeners have been using it for generations.

Age: Just how old a fruit or vegetable seed line has to be to be an heirloom is open to discussion. Some say heirloom vegetables are those introduced before 1951, when modern plant breeders introduced the first hybrids developed from inbred lines. While many of the varieties are 100 to 150 years old, there are some heirlooms that are much older. For example, experts think certain heirlooms are actually traditional Native American crops that are pre-Columbian.

Quality : What draws many consumers to heirlooms is flavor. They want a tomato that tastes like a real tomato, not a plastic one. They long for corn that tastes like it did when they were a kid. They search for a sweet, juicy muskmelon, and wonder why cantaloupes are crisp and dry. After trying varieties in the grocery store that look uniform and do not have bumps, bruises or bug bites, they realize that those fruits and vegetables just don't taste like much and they turn to heirlooms. The best of the heirlooms really are wonderful. They have it all. They taste wonderful, look beautiful, and are easy to grow. No doubt about it, these varieties are terrific. There are, however, varieties that take a more experienced hand to grow well due to locality.

 

Top 5 Reasons for Choosing Heirloom Fruits & Vegetables 

1. Exceptional taste is the No. 1 reason many gardeners cite for choosing heirloom varieties.

2. Heirloom vegetables are likely to be more nutritious than newer varieties.

3. Many gardeners prefer heirloom vegetables because they are open-pollinated, which means you can save your own seed to replant from year to year.

4. Another advantage of heirloom vegetables is that they are “less uniform” than hybrids, which means they often do not ripen all at once.

5. In catalogs and on seed racks, heirloom open-pollinated vegetables are almost always less expensive than hybrids.

Heirloom Fruits & Veggies

List your favorite Heirlooms Below: