Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

Old Seeds, New Tastes: Growing Heirloom Plants Instead of Hybrids

By Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel, 5-16-07

Before the 1930s, farmers and gardeners around the world relied on open-pollinated seeds that came from previous crops. Carrot seeds were gathered from carrots and tomato seeds from tomatoes. Farmers would save seed from the plants that had done best and would continue to grow and collect those seeds, eventually passing them down to their children and their children’s children.

But in the 1930s hybrid seeds began to appear in seed catalogues. Hybrids were made by breeding two distinct and different varieties of the same species in order to bring out desirable traits. Hybrids were workhorse seeds, built for disease resistance and better yield, and these traits were desirable for farmers who were beginning to increase acreage and production. The seeds would not produce other viable seeds, and so while farmers were able to use the new hybrids to their benefit, they needed to buy them each year. Even so, the utility of these plants made hybrid seed the mainstay of agriculture in the United States.

As the food system became more industrialized, food processors and restaurants were looking for plant varieties that fit the standard shape and function of their machines and equipment. More hybrids were bred to handle long transportation or restaurant uniformity requirements. Tomatoes for instance were bred to be plump and perfectly red with skin tough enough to endure prolonged shipment. 

Subsequently, many of the older, open-pollinated heirlooms were dropped by seed companies because they were not selling at the same rate.

And so, since the 1950s, most folks grew up with red tomatoes and white potatoes. While industrialization and hybrid seeds provide these staples year round, we have lost many of the old seeds and tastes. We have fewer choices more often, but have lost the biodiversity and variety that existed for our ancestors. Less variety means that bugs have fewer choices and must evolve to eat those fewer choices; it also means that we as eaters are also without the choices we once had.

According to the Rural Advancement Foundation International, agricultural plant diversity has declined at an astonishing rate.

From 1903 to 1983…
- We have lost about 93 percent of lettuce varieties
- Over 96 percent of sweet corn
- And 95 percent of tomato varieties

Two varieties of apples account for 50 percent of the market and in 2000, 73 percent of the lettuce grown in the United States was iceberg (Fatal Harvest Reader).

Fortunately old seeds are experiencing a renaissance as gardeners and farmers locate these hidden heirlooms and tuck them in for a growing season. Heirloom seeds are the valuable gems that were open pollinated and forged out of luck and weather. They are the seeds that have belonged to the human family for several generations. Many are named for their origins, the families that gathered them or the areas where they grow best. Consider the Cherokee Purple tomato, Jimmy Nardello’s Sweet Italian Frying Pepper, the Rattlesnake Snap Bean.

These names indicate the origin of place and recognize the hands that moved it from our history to our present.

Here in the west, some farmers have harnassed the flavor of heirloom seeds to revitalize their business. In Big Sandy, Montana, Bob Quinn found an ancient strain of Egyptian wheat called Khorasan. He found that the wheat is high in protein and thrives in the high dry plains of Montana and Canada. He named it Kamut after the old Egyptian word for wheat, and now sells the full nutty flavored food around the world. He also built a successful milling business while increasing the diversity of agricultural crops and expanded choices at the grocery store.

Now that we are on the cusp of the May 15 last frost day in this Missoula growing region, I plan to fill my garden with heirlooms: the Tonda Di Parigi Carrot, Green Deer Tongue Lettuce, Czech Black Hot Pepper, Amish Paste Tomato, Boothby’s blonde cucumber, Rosa Bianca Eggplant.

They may be more difficult to grow, but so far the germination rates are high. And while many hybrids are made to ripen all at once, these heirloom seeds will ripen over time and throughout the season, making sure that the good taste and variety will last all summer. With any luck, I will collect seeds from the strongest plants and use them again next year. With any luck, they might last for generations to come.

There are many places to purchase heirloom seeds. Here are a couple:
Fedco Seeds
Seed Savers

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported where Bob Quinn farms in Montana. We regret the error.

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