By Jane Barr

Purple potatoes, yellow carrots, knobby tomatoes, candy-striped beets. These are heirloom vegetable varieties you’re likely to meet if you sign up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) or shop at a local organic vegetable stand this summer. Children love them because they can be so unusual. Take the ground cherry, a little yellow berry enveloped in a thin parchment jacket that looks like a tiny Chinese lantern, and that tastes like a blend of pineapples and strawberries. Or long yellow tomatoes called “orange banana”. Or purple beans that turn green when they’re cooked! Presented with these, what child could resist eating their veggies? The attraction for most of us, though, is the vibrant taste. Once you’ve sunk your teeth into a freshly plucked heirloom tomato, there’s no turning back to the supermarket variety. And old folks love them because they remind them of their childhood. Heirloom or heritage vegetables went out of style when varieties were selected and bred for their tolerance for packaging, long-distance transport, storage and handling, but many grandparents remember the superior taste of those “old fashioned” vegetables.

Environmentalists and organic farmers laud heirlooms because they protect genetic diversity. This is because keeping a large range of plant (and animal) types alive enhances food security by giving us varieties to fall back on should something happen to our staple crops or livestock (remember the Irish potato famine).[1] Did you know that about 96% of the commercial vegetable varieties available in 1903 are now extinct, and that today, 90% of our food comes from just 25 plant and 8 animal species? This situation presents potential risks for global food security and nutrition.[2] [3]

Organic farmers tend to cultivate a large variety of plants, especially heirlooms, because they can experiment with varieties that allow them to adapt to changing environmental conditions, including new pests and diseases and a changing climate. Diseases and pests are more likely to affect hybrid plants that haven’t been allowed to adapt. Unlike hybrids, heirlooms are “open-pollinated” and produce plants that resemble their parents.[4] In the Andes, for example, some 3,000 potato varieties are in use, and in Java, some home gardens have more than 600 plant varieties![5]

Once again, Coop la Maison verte and Ferme du Zéphyr are holding a heritage organic seedling sale, offering healthy, robust, organically grown herb and vegetable seedlings that you can order through the Co-op's online store .


References:

[1] Getz, L. 2009. Heirlooms — Unique Varieties Preserve History, Support Biodiversity. Today’s Dietitian. Vol. 11 (7), p. 16. http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/062909p16.shtml
 
[2] CBD. 2008. What’s The Problem? Convention on Biological Diversity. http://www.cbd.int/agro/whatstheproblem.shtml

[3] Sustainable Table. No date. Heritage And Heirloom Foods. Sustainable Table. http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/heritage

[4] See note 1

[5] Hawtin, G.C. 2000. Genetic Diversity And Food Security. The Courier (UNESCO). http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_05/uk/doss23.htm