What is a heirloom vegetable

Gardeners are talking more about heirloom vegetables every year. Wonder what all the fuss is about? Find out what is a heirloom vegetable below!

• Heirloom vegetables are non-hybrid. Non-hybrid crops are also called open-pollinated plants meaning they are not genetically engineered or mechanically pollinated to produce plants with uniform or specific characteristics. Heirloom vegetables are naturally pollinated and produce seeds from a wide genetic base that grow into a second generation of crops that are true-to-type, looking just like their parents.

• Heirloom vegetables have phenomenal taste. In contrast to hybrid crops which are bred for commercial qualities, heirloom vegetable seeds are bred and saved for their exquisite taste.  Allowed to ripen on the vine rather than through chemical baths, heirloom vegetables also have higher nutritious value.

• Heirloom vegetables promise sustainability. Corporations have no rights over heirloom vegetables and the seeds they produce, granting sustainability on multiple levels. Heirloom vegetables a cheap and replenishable food source easily grown in your own backyard. Saving seeds from these vegetables is completely legal.

• Heirloom vegetables link you to your past.  One rule of heirloom crops is that they must have been introduced before the 1920’s. Many however, date from much farther back. Gardeners everywhere are connecting with their roots by growing the same plants their ancestors grew hundreds, even thousands of years ago.