Heirloom Vegetables
My grandfather had a tremendous garden in his intensely cultivated backyard. His house and lot were in a semi-urban area, yet he fed his family through wars and the depression inbetween with the tomatoes he grew (then bred) himself. Besides tomatoes there were rutabagas, mint, peas, peppers, cabbages, beets, all of it. Sadly, as he became an elderly man, he moved into a nursing home, and his plants were abandoned, then lost. It's a tale that has been repeated too often.
But there's an alternate ending to this tale. Heirloom varieties of vegetables (and flowers) have become increasingly recognized as important in their own right, not just through the lens of nostalgia. So where are all these heirloom varieties hiding?
One of the "invisible losses" that we have experienced as a culture is the loss of choice in our gardens, and on our plates. The loss of genetic diversity as agrabusiness and other growers opt to raise and market vegetable varieties that are not chosen for taste -- but for how well they ship to your local grocery store, and how they look when they get there. Have you wondered why tomatoes taste so...tasteless lately? A lot of folks nowadays might have forgotten what a real tomato tastes like, or worse, have never known (pictured at left, Rosa Bianca eggplant from Seed Savers Exchange).
My grandfather had a tremendous garden in his intensely cultivated backyard. His house and lot were in a semi-urban area, yet he fed his family through wars and the depression inbetween with the tomatoes he grew (then bred) himself. Besides tomatoes there were rutabagas, mint, peas, peppers, cabbages, beets, all of it. Sadly, as he became an elderly man, he moved into a nursing home, and his plants were abandoned, then lost. It's a tale that has been repeated too often.
But there's an alternate ending to this tale. Heirloom varieties of vegetables (and flowers) have become increasingly recognized as important in their own right, not just through the lens of nostalgia. So where are all these heirloom varieties hiding?
Diversity not only generally tastes better, but it's better for people, and better for the environment. The Irish Potato Famine of the 1800s would not have had nearly as much deadly impact had so many farmers in Ireland not been growing the same type of potato (that was very succeptible to blight). Our food in America and elsewhere is at similar risk, as the monoculture approach to farming gradually takes over our acres.
But you can make a stand. And if you think that planting a bit of heirloom squash or an heirloom rosebush is not a significant contribution, you should know that many of the heirlooms available today are the decendents of plants "excavated" from abandoned farms, desolate city lots, and nondescript roadsides. Amatuer gardener or no, gardening on an acre or in a 3x2 plot, you can be a link in a great chain that preserves our health and genetic diversity. Even in my grandfather's abandoned garden, there are seeds and plants there still, waiting to be rescued for the next generation.
Where can I find this?
http://www.seedsavers.org/
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/
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