Custom Sales Book - 26

Heirloom plants bring back the ﬂavors of yesteryear
cross the country, an interesting phenomenon is taking place. In plowed patches of earth, raised beds and containers, vegetable gardens are sprouting up by the millions. According to the National Gardening Association, there were 7 million new gardens planted in the United States last year. And for the ﬁrst time in decades, sales of vegetable seeds passed those of ﬂowers at major retailers. Some say this propensity to plant can be blamed on the economy. Just like during the Great Depression, desperate people struggling to survive are doing what their ancestors did to put food on the table. Others attribute this return to the earth to celebrity gardeners like First Lady Michelle Obama. “It’s something that’s cool again,” says Jere Gettle, owner of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansﬁeld. “Younger people, they’ve hardly ever seen a garden before. It’s not something they remember having to do, a chore kind of like washing the laundry. And a lot of people are just tired of what they get in the grocery store.” Increasingly, gardeners are turning to heirloom seed sellers like Baker Creek and the Seed Savers Exchange of Decorah, Iowa, for the open-pollinated varieties once planted by their ancestors. In return, they are discovering a world of incredible ﬂavors, vibrant colors and unusual shapes that is putting the fun back in gardening. Heirloom plants are open-pollinated varieties that may date back centuries. Unlike modern hybrids that were created from two or more parent crosses, seeds from heirloom vegetables can be saved and planted the next year. Hybrids were created to boost some trait such as uniform shape, disease resistance or to make them better for shipping. Unfortunately, hybrid breeders often bred the ﬂavor right out of the fruit. “Everything has its place in the market,” says Aaron Whaley, president of the Seed Savers Exchange and the son of its co-founders. “If you are producing large amounts of butternut squash for Walmart, they do want predictability and uniformity. But we are not focused on that market. We are focused on taste and supplying small markets or local restaurants.” If you think tomatoes are round and red, you’ve probably never browsed a catalog from an heirloom seed store. Baker Creek, for example, offers more than 100 tomato varieties. New this year are 20 Russian tomatoes including Vorlan, a purplish-red tomato with intense ﬂavor, and King of Siberia, a heart-shaped golden tomato. “We’ve also got a couple of new Chinese tomatoes,” Gettle says. “One is yellow and the other is purple with stripes. They are productive and very early.” At the Seed Savers Exchange, round red tomatoes are the exception instead of the rule. For example, Green Sausage, an elongated green and yellow paste tomato, looks more like a cucumber than a tomato. Heirloom tomatoes come in black, brown, orange, yellow and green shades, not to mention the aptlynamed Wapsipinicon Peach with its fuzzy skin. And that’s just the tomatoes. Among the hundreds of heirloom offerings from the Seed Savers are some strange plants indeed. At ﬁrst glance, Cincinnati Market looks like a purple carrot. This rare radish, ﬁrst available before 1870, is one of a dozen or more new offerings. To go with it, consider another new seed, Paris Market. These squat red carrots look more like radishes. “It’s a nice round one, good for people who don’t have the deep sandy soil,” says Whaley. “It doesn’t need to go so deep.” Whaley says Seed Savers tries to offer new variet-

What’s old is new again
by Jim McCarty

photos courtesy of the Seed Savers Exchange

Clockwise from top left: Members of the Seed Savers Exchange searched for almost a decade before rediscovering Moon & Stars watermelons growing on a Macon County farm. Hill Country Red okra is great for pickling and adds a splash of color to meals. Originally from India, Poona Kheera cucumbers could be mistaken for potatoes until they are sliced open. Cincinnati Market radishes look more like carrots. ies that are no longer commercially available every year. An example of this is the Tours squash that originated in France. Another is Hill Country Red okra, which is similar to common okra save for its unique color. “There are thousands of heirloom varieties,” Whaley says. “People are looking for something different but also something a small-scale grower can do well with. Being unique is one thing, but it also has to have some other good qualities to it.” He believes growers can stand out from the crowd at the local farmer’s market by offering heirloom vegetables. “If everyone has butternut squash and you show up with Guatemalan banana squash, I think there is a nice niche for those things.” Moon & Stars watermelon would certainly get a buyer’s attention. After a decade-long search for this legendary melon, Whaley’s father discovered this odd melon being grown on a north Missouri farm. Today’s growers can plant three different types, each with large yellow suns and smaller yellow moons on their dark green skins. A basket of Forellenschuss lettuce would also stand out. The name translates literally to “trout, self enclosing.” Its speckled leaves might look like no other lettuce you’ve ever seen. And no salad will now be complete without the addition of a Prickly Caterpillar. Not really intended to be eaten, 19th century pranksters used these dead ringers for their namesake to surprise unexpected diners. Baker Creek’s Gettle says he is deﬁnitely seeing a trend toward the unusual, especially things such as purple tomatoes and orange-ﬂesh watermelons. “People are trying more varieties than what they grew up with. They are trying things from different cultures. Or it might be something from their ancestors. They might want something that brings back a part of their past.” He says sales have doubled in each of the past two years, with beet seed second only to tomatoes in popularity. Beet lovers can choose from a dozen types including Bull’s Blood, which has edible redish-purple leaves and a sweet root, to the massive Mammoth Red Mangel that yields 20-pound roots and is more suited for livestock feed. Salad lovers wanting to try something different can pick up a package of chicory seed from Baker Creek. Planted in late summer and harvested into the cold weather, chicory is also good cooked. Besides offering seeds in small packages and in bulk, Baker Creek also hosts garden festivals on the ﬁrst Sunday of every month. They are an excellent place to get tips on growing heirlooms. Once considered obsolete, today heirlooms are undergoing tremendous popularity. Baker Creek gave out all 150,000 copies of its catalog last year and is printing an additional 100,000 this year. “I think this trend is going to continue,” Gettle says. “The publicity gardening has gotten is so exciting. If food keeps tasting so bad at the grocery store, then growing it yourself will deﬁnitely continue.” Baker Creek can be reached at 417-924-8917 or www.rareseeds.com. You can reach the Seed Savers at 563-382-5990 or www.seedsavers.org. Both organizations offer free catalogs, forums and online shopping.

RURAL MISSOURI RURAL MISSOURI

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Custom Sales Book

Custom Sales Book
Contents
Comments
Columns
Ghosts of the Grasslands
Out of the Way Eats
Mail Bag
Best of Rural Missouri
Hearth and Home
News Briefs
What’s Old is New Again
Marketplace
Around Missouri
Missouri’s Horse
Neighbors
Look for the Dinosaur
Just4Kids

Custom Sales Book