Organic vs. Heirloom Seeds
By Don Rosenberg, author of ‘No Green Thumb Required! Organic Family Gardening Made Easy’

We want to be successful with our gardens, so anything we can do to cut down our workload and help us get started is worthwhile. But we also want to keep the process affordable. 

One question that comes up is, “Do I have to use organic seeds in order to grow organic vegetables?” The assumption is that only organic seeds can be used in an organic garden. I'm a huge fan of the Green Movement, but I'm disappointed with organic seeds. They are often much more expensive and give you fewer seeds per package. In reality, what makes a garden organic are the conditions in which the plants grow, not whether the seeds were raised on an organic farm. In fact, unless seeds came from Three Mile Island or Love Canal, they’re fine. Just avoid using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in your garden.

The same applies to buying transplants. Many people ask, “Are they organic?” I recommend using transplants for your summer garden for Tomatoes, Eggplants and Peppers. Herbs are also commonly purchased as transplants. This allows gardeners avoid the work of trying to sprout seeds inside, keeping them alive and hardening them off, so they can be planted outside without dropping dead from shock. 

A concern is that some growers might use synthetic fertilizers in their potting mix. But honestly, once your plant is in the soil, the tiny amount from the original pot will make no real difference. So I recommend that you buy local transplants and support local growers at nurseries, garden centers and farmers markets. By doing so you’ll be able to try several different varieties of each crop. 

Instead of organic seeds, I recommend growing heirloom varieties instead. So what are heirloom seeds anyway? One of the problems that came with modern farming is that as newer seed varieties were developed almost all farmers used the same types. They were bred for qualities like shelf life, appearance, durability, and ease of use with mechanical harvesting and processing. Notice I didn’t mention taste! The result was that many older varieties, which tasted great but didn’t grow well on a large-scale farm, were set aside and never grown again.

Several groups have come forward to reclaim and recover these unique historical varieties, usually by acquiring them from home gardeners or established older farms, and growing them again as a source of fresh seeds. This practice goes a lot farther than just heirloom Tomatoes like ‘German Johnson’ and ‘Cherokee Purple.’ There are thousands of varieties of unique garden vegetables from which to choose. 

Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa is one of the leaders in the effort. Networking with thousands of farmers and home gardeners to gather rare seeds, Seed Savers Exchange then sells them to the public to be grown across the country. Their collection is extensive and includes crops like Beans carried during the Cherokee Trail of Tears March, Beets striped like a bulls-eye, purple Carrots, Cucumbers that look like miniature Watermelons, and Swiss Chard with stems in five neon colors.

Instead of a generic vegetable garden with common varieties of Peas, Green Beans and Lettuce, gardeners can now have vegetables with unusual colors, flavors, textures and histories. This is especially exciting for children who are learning about gardening for the first time. What kid wouldn’t want to show off their purple beans that turn bright green when cooked, or beets with red and white stripes? Or purple carrots with a yellow core?

 Local gardeners can join Seed Savers Exchange and learn how to grow and store seeds to share with other gardeners across the country, especially if they have unique varieties handed down from family members or from outside the country. Very rewarding! Visit Seed Savers Exchange at their Web site: www.seedsavers.org.

Don Rosenberg on Blend radio
Don Rosenberg was a featured guest on Garden Gossip home & garden radio which aired live on Apr. 25, 2009. To meet the rest of the guests and listen to the entire show, please click here. To listen to his interview, please double click the play button below.

So which varieties are best?
Here’s a starter list for summer crops…

Christmas Lima Bean: Produces beautiful large quarter-sized flat white seeds with maroon spots and swirls; used as a green shell lima or dry; rich flavor with heavy yields; bears even during extreme heat; dates back to the 1840s.

Purple Podded Pole Bean: Discovered in an Ozark garden in the 1930s, probably northern European origin; they turn a bright green when cooked.

 

 

Cherokee Trail of Tears Pole Beans: Given to Seed Savers in 1977 by the late Dr. John Wyche, from Hugo, OK. Dr. Wyche’s Cherokee ancestors carried this bean over the Trail of Tears, the infamous winter death march from October 1838 in the Smoky Mountains to March 26, 1839 in Oklahoma, leaving a trail of 4,000 graves.
 

Scarlet Runner Beans: One of the oldest runner beans now in existence; first documented in 1750 ; good for use as either small snaps, sliced pods or green shells, used in place of limas in cooler climates; highly ornamental red flowers; hummingbirds love them!

 

Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber: A small cucumber with a sour taste – almost like it’s been pickled on the vine! Looks like a tiny watermelon; great for salads.

 

 

True Lemon Cucumber: Unique yellow appearance; size of a tennis ball; great for pickling and slicing. Does NOT taste like a lemon!

 

Ping Tung Long Eggplant: Extremely beautiful eggplant from Pingtung, Taiwan; dark lavender fruits grow up to a foot long with a one inch diameter and have an incredible shine that radiates off the skin.

 

 

New Zealand Spinach: Not a true spinach, but similar in flavor and usage that grows during the summer; has small, brittle fleshy green leaves, great for fresh summer greens; New Zealand native brought to Europe by Captain Cook in the 1770s.

 

Tomatoes
We’re all familiar with our local favorite heirloom tomatoes; Brandywine from as far back as 1889, Cherokee Purple, German Pink and German Johnson.

Other varieties include…
Gold Medal: Large, yellow, streaked red; firm and smooth; very little acid; said to be the sweetest tomato you ever tasted.

 

Blondkopfchen: A yellow cherry tomato; (a.k.a. Little Blonde Girl); small golden-yellow 1" fruits with excellent sweet taste. Fruits are borne in giant clusters, enormous yields and never a cracked fruit; bears until frost; seed obtained from the Gatersleben Seed Bank in eastern Germany.

This is just a start to a list of heirloom seeds to try. So resist the impulse to grow ordinary Kentucky Wonder pole beans, or Parks Whopper tomatoes; experiment with new varieties and discover a new taste from your garden this summer!