It Is Not an Antique, ItÕs an Heirloom Vegetable

We have all heard of and know exactly what a vegetable is but how many of us have ever heard of and know what is an heirloom vegetable? Heirloom vegetables, those old, open-pollinated varieties that have stood the test of time and now have become popular all over again, and not without reason.

The best of them are among the finest vegetables ever known. For example, the most popular heirloom vegetables come from heirloom tomato seeds. They would be well worth growing for their mouth-watering flavors alone, but they also have other important qualities. Heirlooms are living artifacts. Popular in living history exhibits, these old-time varieties offer a glimpse of life in earlier times.

Ever Thought You Would Be Eating History?

It has been said that traits encoded in their DNA may someday prove critical to feeding the world. There is just something about all their wonderful shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors that sparks a sense of wonder. Take heirloom tomatoes, for example. They can be big, small, fluted, smooth, red, orange, pink, purple, yellow, green, white, striped, round, pear-shaped, determinate, indeterminate, potato-leaved, and more. They also vary in traits you can't see - taste, hardiness, adaptability, and the like. While tomatoes may be the most popular heirloom, many other vegetables are just as diverse. Peppers come in all kinds of colors, sizes, and shapes. So do corn, beans, kale, eggplant, squash, lettuce, potatoes, and nearly all the other crops.

Today, seed companies and seed savers offer literally hundreds of heirlooms. Some are standard varieties that have never been superseded. Others were popular once, but disappeared from the seed trade. Many of these would have been lost, but seed-saving gardeners kept them alive. Still other heirlooms never made the big-time. They were regional or family favorites, passed down by generation after generation of gardeners rather than sold by seed companies.

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