It is sad to see how many of our traditional vegetable and plant varieties are disappearing. Only a few hundred years ago, before the “Industrial Revolution of Agriculture”, there was an incredible variety of plants that were grown for food and medicinal uses. As modern agriculture developed its industrialised methods, in parallel with industrial factories, fewer varieties of vegetables and plants were grown.

Most food crops then started to be grown in larger and larger fields, destroying the hedgerows that bordered the land and all the wildlife it supported. To maximise the profit and consistency of the harvest, single crops (mono-culture) were grown from fewer varieties on larger plots owned by corporations. Now it is far more profitable for modern “farming” multi-nationals to grow crops, that ripen at the same time and can be harvested by machine.

The choices that decided which varieties were to be grown had less to do with flavour or nutrition and more to do with their productivity, tolerance to drought, frost, pesticides and most importantly their ability to withstand their long trips to the supermarkets. Heirloom and heritage gardening can be seen as the ordinary person's re-action to this trend or simply enlightenment.

 

You can fool some of the people all of the time,

and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

 

Abraham Llincoln (attributed)
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

 

Thanks to modern media and especially the internet, more and more people are becoming aware of health issues and are becoming concerned about the quality and taste of the food they are putting into their body. This combined with the rising cost of nutrient deficient food has led a ressurgance of the “Grow your own “movement with thousands of urban city dwellers on waiting lists for allotments.

To be a truly Heirloom plant, it needs to be a plant that will grow true to seed through all its generations. These plants are “open pollinated” and cannot be a hybrid variety. You will find that commercial seed companies lists are becoming increasingly dominated by modern F1 hybrids and that many of the once common non-hybrid varieties are disappearing. This is not just happening in the UK but throughout most of the countries in the industrialise western world.

One of the reasons for the original decline of traditional and heirloom varieties until now, was caused by the simple fact that up until the appearance and rise of the commercial seed and plant catalogue, most people would save their own seeds, often handing them down through the generations, as one would family “heirlooms”. In many places around the world this is still done.

Now there is also further pressure on our botanical heritage. Under new “Plant Breeders Rights”, some varieties may be registered by the original developers/breeders of the hybrid, who then receive Royalty from ALL that use that variety. In the US plants can also now be patented like an invention or machine.

In the European Union only certain varieties of vegetables may be sold if they are on a National List. To get on the list, the plant must first pass a strict DUS test to show it is “distinct” & “uniform” from similar varieties. Then to complete the registration of the plant on the list, involves paying a substantial fee and this is followed by an annual maintenance fee to keep the variety on the list. It is illegal to offer seeds for sale that are not registered on the list and anyone who does so may be prosecuted.

So, you may ask if they do not conform to these modern guidelines why should we grow them?

Heritage and heirloom plants, especially vegetables, are vital to the bio-diversity of this planet.

 

Firstly, we are not the only species of life on this planet that depends on them. Bumble bees are just one example of many insects that depend on "open pollinated" flowers.

Secondly, who can decide now what genetic characteristics will be important in 10, 20 or 100 years time?

We have no idea what diseases or changes in climate will happen in the meantime. By preserving as many of these core varieties as possible, we give ourselves as a species the best chance of adapting to change in the future.

Lastly, many heritage and heirloom species of fruit and vegetables still have superior qualities to F1 hybrids. They have better storage properties. They have the ability to grow and grow well, without resorting to chemicals, such as pesticides and fertilisers. In fact, their variable characteristics and lack of uniformity which are viewed as “flaws”, means they are not susceptible to diseases that spread like wildfire through more uniform varieties.

The heritage & heirloom varieties crop over a longer period, not all at once, thereby avoiding gluts, but most importantly and this just my personal opinion, they taste better.

If you just make the simple personal commitment to grow heirloom and heritage varieties, instead of growing modern F1 hybrids, then you can help stop these valuable plants from disappearing for ever.

 

 

best wishes

Greenjackdavey

 

P.S. At the time of writing this, there are no rules I know of, to prevent you swapping seeds but please check first.