Posted on 02/07/2009 7:00:17 PM PST by franksolich
While reading the food section of the afternoon edition of the newspaper, I came across a comment about "heirloom" seeds--not their qualities or anything, but just a suggestion that one hoard a few in a general pantry.
Now, I was born and raised alongside the Platte River of Nebraska, farming country (and then as a teenager, the Sandhills of Nebraska, ranching country), and so matters agricultural and horticultural are not exactly alien things to me.
But on the Head of St. John the Baptist, I must say the first time I ever saw the term "heirloom seeds" was when I first started observing the primitives on Skins's island, in the cooking, do-it-yourself, frugal living, and rural forums.
Really.
I kid you not. I had never seen that term before in my life.
The way the primitives talked about their "heirloom seeds," one milght have reasonably supposed they were talking about a Louis XIV pot d'chambre or a Queen Anne chest of drawers.
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativecave.com ...
“Ping” for the DUmmie ALERT! ping list; it has nothing to do with the primitives on Skins’s island, but maybe some might find it interesting.
tomatofest.com
has great heirloom tomato seeds.
Hi Frank I never heard of heirloom seeds either. Ya learn something everyday on FR. Of course I have gotten to the age where I forget a lot too.
It is, but the perspective of the writer is bizarre to say the least. He writes like he needs a bowel movement.
“Heirloom” plants can be interesting, but if they were so wonderful, there’d have been no need for the hybrids we have today.
Author has no idea whatsoever of the value, need and — in some cases — superior taste of heirloom varieties. This is not a liberal, moonbat plot.
What they’re going on and on about is certain varieties and classics of plants/vegetables/fruits/grains essentially going extinct because the seed production world is always on the treadmill to produce the ‘latest and greatest’ varieties.
Some people with organic fixations go overboard, but it is a valid issue. There’s no reason to give up the varieties and selective breedings that have worked well in the past simply because no one took the time to produce them. A great example from the hay industry: oat hay is pretty good stuff for horses. Years ago, there used to be a variety of hay oat called “Swedish Select” — big, fat beautiful leaves, soft stems, which made for great hay. But the grain production on SS was poor - about 40% of what a common dual-purpose Cayuse oat variety is.
Nowadays, you can’t find Swedish Select oat seed - no matter what you’re willing to pay. Because the grain production was low, the seed production potential was low, so growers quit growing it. I know plenty of hay producers who are wishing that they’d kept back some of the crop to combine off the grain for seed for successive years - they assumed that they’d simply be able to keep getting the seed. Their assumptions turned out to be wrong, and now the variety might well be gone...
If you think you will be able to buy new seeds each year, the hybrids may be a better choice. If you think things are headed downhill, and you’ll need to gather seeds from this year’s garden to make one next year, you definitely want heirloom varieties.
““Heirloom” plants can be interesting, but if they were so wonderful, there’d have been no need for the hybrids we have today.”
One does not cancel the need for the other. There’s need for the hybrids, but there’s also need for a variety. If you narrow all our planted food down to nothing but a handful of hybrids, then you have a much higher chance losing those varieties, either through disease or terrorist attack.
Heirlooms also make for a much more interesting taste spectrum.
Hybrid veggies - especially tomatoes - were developed not always for taste, but for long shelf-life and minimal bruising during transport. Heirloom veggies and flowers are good additions to a garden.
I believe the benefit of using heirloom seeds is that the plants that grow from them will reliably produce seeds that will germinate and produce an identical plant. Hybrid seeds will produce plants just as nice, but they may not be reproducible via the seeds they generate. If one were into “hoarding” the seeds for survivalism, this might be an important characteristic to consider.
My understanding is that unlike hybridized varieties, heirloom seeds can remain viable for extended periods of time.
Mind you, the hybridizing that's gone into modern seeds have improved the plants in both yield & disease resistance, so there's no real logical reason to go with the heirlooms. However, keeping the old stocks alive increases the world's biodiversity, providing potential opportunities for hybrids in different directions than those that have already been tried & developed & that is a net positive.
When my great grandmother died in 96 I got several of her Hostas which are planted in the yard now. I also grow morning glories that originally came from her seed.
Here, there are quite a few home gardeners who use “heirloom seeds.” Tomato seeds used year after year to produce the same strain of tomato. My sister-in-law’s mother uses heirloom seeds from the ‘old country’ of Poland, and every year uses the seeds she produced to cultivate the following years crop. They even plant the seeds indoors on a certain feastday of a certain saint (whom I don’t remember the name of.)
As I understand it heirloom seeds produce plants that produce seeds that will produce more plants. You can't get seeds off from hybrids and so you're forced to keep buying seeds. Think y2k, teowawki and other situations that would make buying seeds difficult.
When I was a kid, we had a patch of scallions like those tomatoes. I don’t know who first planted them. But you NEVER had to do a darn thing to make them grow. Infact, you had to keep killing them or they would take over the entire yard. I remember mowing the patch down to a manageable size every week along with the grass.
And sometimes, we even ate a few of them. They were extra hot, but good.
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