I met the Farm Girls-- National Heirloom Expo Wrap Up

Fantastic info on heirloom seeds:

To meet the qualifications as an heirloom, the seed must have reproduced the same fruit, vegetable or grain in a succession of at least 50 years or more. The seed has not been hybridized. The heirloom seed has been passed down from generation to generation and each heirloom seed has a story that comes with it. The Mortgage Lifter tomato has a fascinating story. Many years ago a family had fallen into financial devastation and was close to losing their home. In order to save their home they grew tomatoes and sold them at a roadside stand. They made enough money to pay their mortgage off, so they named their tomato the Mortgage Lifter.
Heirloom seeds must be in production for a minimum of 50 years but the seed could have been circulating for thousands of years. Heirloom seeds are considered living history.
Many varieties of vegetables that are found in the grocery store have been hybridized. They were developed to store longer and travel longer distances without bruising or spoiling. These hybridized vegetables have many logical and economic advantages, but have fewer flavors and only offer the choice of a few varieties. For instance in many produce sections there may be only one variety of zucchini, one variety of yellow squash, one variety of butternut squash and one variety of acorn squash. Are we really this limited to varieties? No. There are so many more varieties and each variety comes with its own unique flavor, shape, color and size. We saw many varieties at the Heirloom expo including hundreds of gourds, pumpkins, watermelons, peppers, grains, eggplants, onions, beans and many more that were grown from heirloom seeds.

http://www.waxahachietx.com/news/ellis_county/farmgirls-went-west/article_74f...


6:45 am
September 28, 2012

 

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