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Understanding & Growing Heirloom Fruits and Vegetables: Organic Gardening

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Via: the-irascible-harry-krishner • 12 years ago • 6 comments

Understanding & Growing Heirloom Fruits and Vegetables: Organic Gardening

Some famous heirlooms have been sold and passed down in families or communities for hundreds of years; others date just to the early 1900s. What they all have in common is that backyard gardeners have prized them for their beauty, flavor, fragrance, or productivity. Because home gardeners thought highly enough of these plants to save seed from them year after year, we can still enjoy them today. ( READ IT ALL )

Photo credit: Furious Eats, Cooks, and Travels

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Professor Expert

seeder Krishna 12 years ago

Heirloom plants are also a tangible connection with the past. Like fine old furniture and antique china, the garden plants of earlier generations draw us closer to those who have grown them before us. Some heirloom cultivars have fascinating histories. Mostoller Wild Goose bean, said to have been collected from the craw of a goose shot in 1864 in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, was once grown by Cornplanter Indians. Hopi Pale Grey squash is a Pueblo Indian legacy that was almost lost to cultivation, and remains one of the most sought-after winter squashes. Anasazi corn, found in a Utah cave, is thought to be more than 800 years old.

Professor Expert

seeder Krishna 12 years ago

And many gardeners have heard the story of Radiator Charleys Mortgage Lifter tomato , a huge, meaty cultivar that helped its discoverer, an unemployed mechanic, pay off his mortgage during the Depression.