Planting the Past
A piece of vintage clothing or furniture is valued because of its uniqueness and because it provides a window into the past. Today, an increasing number of farmers and consumers are looking for those same qualities in their produce. Vintage seeds — more commonly known as heirloom seeds — are seeds that have been carefully extracted and preserved from the plant of a particular crop for at least 50 years. Additionally, to qualify as heirloom, the seeds must be harvested from plants that have been pollinated through natural mechanisms like wind, birds or insects, otherwise known as open pollination. This is different from other pollination methods, such as hybridization, in which different varieties of a plant are cross pollinated either deliberately in a controlled environment or naturally in the garden when multiple varieties of a plant are growing near each other. Cross pollination results in a new plant that is genetically different from its parent plant. Heirloom seeds, on the other hand, develop consistently from one generation to the next — so you could be eating the same fruit or vegetable your ancestors were eating hundreds of years ago (1).
In the past century with the increasing consolidation of the agricultural sector, we have lost between 80–90 percent of the vegetables that once grew around the world (2). These have been mostly replaced by more efficient and higher yielding crops (2). The big seed companies narrowed their offerings to focus on seeds with the largest markets, such as varieties that can be planted in many locations or ones that do well in large-scale agricultural centers (3). Heirlooms were passed down for their flavor and texture but many of them don’t ship well and therefore weren’t well suited for a globalized produce market. As a result, the number of non-hybrid seed varieties sold by seed companies decreased from 5,000 in 1981 to 600 in less than 20 years (3,4). There are currently a handful of mass produced varieties available in grocery stores (1). But today, with a growing focus on local agriculture and produce variety and quality, the once disregarded heirlooms are making a comeback.
Hybrids have mostly been genetically engineered to produce a specific product over a wide range of growing conditions and to maximize for shelf-life, shipping ability, size, and appearance, usually at the cost of flavor and nutritional value. Heirlooms, on the other hand, have adapted to specific growing conditions and are usually passed down because they are rich in flavor and high in nutrient content. For these reasons, heirloom varieties are a major crop opportunity for local agriculture. Many farmers and gardeners who focus on heirloom crops also do so to sustain certain varieties of plants and even to connect to the past (1). But for many farmers, the most important reason for growing heirloom vegetables is to preserve biodiversity. As commercial practices lead to the concentration of crops into fewer varieties, planting heirloom seeds is an important tool for maintaining agricultural diversity and resilience.
There are many great companies and farms in the New York area which are dedicated to growing and preserving heirloom varieties. For example, the Hudson Valley Seed Company sells heirloom and open pollinated seeds, many of which they produce themselves on a small farm. The mission of Seedshed, a nonprofit organization sponsored by the Open Space Institute is to raise “seed awareness” in the hopes of increasing people’s appreciation of the role of seeds in their lives. They also collect vanishing seeds and their stories from Iroquois and Mohawk communities. According to Ken Greene, who is both the founder of Seedshed and the Hudson Valley Seed Company, “when we lose seeds we lose cultural practices (5).” Foodshed.io is proud to be working with farms, such as Maitri farms, in Amenia, NY (check out our interview with Maitri Farm here), which prioritize heirloom varieties in their crop production. As agriculture continues to become more globalized and technologically intensive, the growing popularity of heirloom vegetables is a reminder that sometimes the past holds important solutions for a more sustainable future.
- “Beginner’s Guide to Heirloom Seeds.” Gardening Channel, 23 Nov. 2017, www.gardeningchannel.com/beginners-guide-to-heirloom-seeds/.
- Keegan, Theresa. “Heirloom Seeds Preserve Taste of the Past.” Poughkeepsie Journal, 25 Feb. 2017, www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/life/2017/02/25/heirloom-seeds-gardening-vegetables-produce-panzanella-hudson-valley-seed-company-ken-greene-culinary-institute-of-america/97709818/.
- Ohlson, Kristin. “Turns Out, the Future of Food Lies in These Old Seeds.” Take Part, 8 Nov. 2014, www.takepart.com/feature/2014/11/18/why-organic-seeds-matter.
- Vinje, E. “The Charm (and Flavors) of Heirloom Vegetables.” Planet Natural Research Center, www.planetnatural.com/heirloom-vegetables/.
- Horrigan, Jeremiah. “Sowing Seeds to Save Societies .” hv1, 19 Oct. 2017, hudsonvalleyone.com/2017/10/19/sowing-seeds-to-save-societies/.
