When it comes to heirloom foods like these ‘Chioggia’ beets, Jere Gettle is considered quite the expert. As co-founder of Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, he has even been called “the Indiana Jones of seeds,” by The New York Times.
After all, this intrepid seedsman has traveled the globe to uncover unusual, delicious and beautiful heritage foods worth saving for future generations. Together with his wife, Emilee, he describes these adventures and gives gardening tips in the critically acclaimed The Heirloom Life Gardener.
As a lover of heirloom plants, I’ve been a big fan of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for several years. Each winter, when the company’s gorgeous, four-color catalog arrives, I sit down and literally study the more than 1,400 varieties of amazing tomatoes, peppers, beets, lettuces and other heirloom seeds available from 70 different countries.
With so many heritage foods disappearing from our diets, it’s comforting to see such a large number of non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented seeds in one place. According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, 75 percent of agriculture’s genetic diversity has disappeared over the last century. Yet, each of those historic seeds grew a particular food, and told its own unique story. To learn more about this topic, here’s an article I wrote for Horticulture Magazine on why we should treasure heirloom foods. (PDF)
Already a fan of their catalog, I was excited when I learned that Jere and his wife Emilee had written a book called The Heirloom Life Gardener, about the Baker Creek way of growing food.
As I expected, this hardcover book is packed with gorgeous four-color photos, along with practical tips about gardening and saving seeds. But some of the most interesting reading is actually about Jere’s early life and how it shaped his heirloom seed company.
As you’ll learn in The Heirloom Life Gardener, Jere started gardening at a young age. Growing up in the Boise Valley of eastern Oregon and Montana in the 1980s, his parents were homesteaders and lived off the land. While other kids were home watching Dallas and Dynasty sitcoms, Jere was growing up surrounded by nature — including heirloom winter squashes and pumpkins, as you can see above. By three years old, Jere had already sowed his first seeds.
The family later moved to a farm in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. At the age of 17, Jere printed his first seed catalog and started the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company in 1998. Today, Baker Creek offers the largest selection of heirloom varieties in the United States, many dating back to the 19th century or earlier.
As a young man, Jere traveled to remote villages in Mexico and Asia to visit farmers’ markets selling unique and unusual foods, rarely if ever seen in the United States. Above is a farm in Thailand; a nation that supplied many exotic vegetable seeds that he now sells. Jere writes of how these experiences shaped his company and his commitment to preserving heritage foods.
These Thai eggplants are typical of the ones Jere found during his travels, and illustrate the many colors, sizes and shapes of eggplants you can grow by seed in your garden. Few of these heritage foods can be found in ordinary grocery stores in the United States.
Jere also has come across amazing tomatoes over the years, such as the prolific ‘Violet Jasper.’ Not your typical tomato, this Asian heirloom is striking and sweet tasting. Each one a tiny work of art.
These days, Jere has a wife and daughter, who also play important roles in the family business. The company has expanded from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company in Missouri to include the quaint Petaluma Seed Bank in Northern California, where seeds and locally made items are sold from a grand, former bank building built in the 1920s.
Recently, Jere and his wife Emilee purchased Comstock, Ferre & Company. Located in old Wethersfield, Connecticut, the renowned firm is the oldest continuously operating seed company in New England, selling heirloom seeds for more than 200 years. The property features 11 historic buildings, including the founder’s 1767 house where the Gettles’ daughter Sasha can be seen having a good time above.
In upcoming years, it’ll be exciting to see what plans the Gettle family has for this landmark seed company.
A large portion of the book is an A-Z Growing Guide to the Gettles’ 50 favorite vegetables. This section covers growing, pests and diseases, seed saving and cooking advice — all illustrated with the same stunning photos that heirloom gardeners have come to love from their catalogs.
Win Your Own Autographed Copy of The Heirloom Life Gardener
We’d be delighted if you would follow Seasonal Wisdom and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds on Facebook, but it is NOT a requirement to enter this giveaway:
How To Enter: It’s easy to enter The Heirloom Life Gardener special book giveaway, valued at $29.99. Just do the following before midnight on March 23, 2012: This giveaway is over. Congratulations to Kathryn of Raleigh, North Carolina for winning this book.
1) Leave a comment below and tell us why you think it’s important to preserve heirloom foods in our culture. Do you prefer the look and taste of old varieties? Are you determined to help save our world’s culinary heritage? Is it important that sufficient food diversity be maintained for the health and well-being of future generations? Or, do you just really love funky foods like the ‘Purple Podded’ pole beans below?
Whatever it is, we want to hear your thoughts about why these old, heritage foods matter to you.
The winner will be chosen at random on March 24, 2012 and contacted within 24 hours. If the proposed winner forfeits or does not claim the prize by March 28, the prize will be re-awarded based on the sponsor’s sole discretion. All prizes will be awarded. Please provide your name and email to enter this contest, so we can contact you promptly if you win. The winner agrees to allow his/her first name to be mentioned in conjunction with this giveaway.
The number of eligible entries will determine the odds of winning. This giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only, who are over the age of 18 years old. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO WIN. This sweepstakes is VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. By entering this giveaway, you are agreeing to these conditions.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, and the books were provided at no charge. However, all expressed opinions are my own.
Please be sure to enter this giveaway before midnight on March 23, 2012. Good luck everyone! Meanwhile, stay tuned for more exciting garden giveaways in upcoming weeks. This giveaway is over. Congratulations to Kathryn of Raleigh, North Carolina for winning this book.
All images in this post are copyright Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
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Great giveaway. I support growing heirlooms because they usually have 459480985% more flavor, and because I love supporting smaller businesses run by people who are passionate about what they do. Genetic diversity is hugely important to me as we’ve seen time and time again than monoculture is a huge liability to our food system.
Heather, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you one hundred percent. Good luck in the drawing. Teresa
Just as with animals, diversity of plant varieties is important. Without diversity, diseases and natural catastrophes could cause plant species to be wiped out. for example, the Irish potato famine, which led to the death or displacement of two and a half million people in the 1840s, is an example of what can happen when farmers rely on a few types of plants for their livelihood. If the Irish had planted different varieties of potatoes, at lease one potato variety (or perhaps several) would have survived the famine.
In addition, genetically engineered plants are quickly enveloping the plant world and are polluting plant DNA. It is important to save original plant species so as not to lose them. Just as humans caused many animal species to become extinct, so could they cause the extinction of plant species.
It is important to keep heirloom plant species from being lost so they are not lost forever.
Janelle: Those are all excellent points about the importance of plant diversity to prevent a species from being wiped out. Thanks for your comments and for entering this giveaway. Teresa
GOD doesn’t make mistakes….Heirloom Seeds are not man generated but GOD created seeds. There is no mistaking an Heirloom Produce…unique in looks and taste….each one a “Masters” Piece. I support the Heirloom Seed movement and I for one plan on eating my way through it!!!
Respectfully, Mary Jane Guthery – Morning Glory Farm, Jones, OK
Mary Jane: Thanks for sharing your opinions. You’re officially entered in this giveaway. Teresa
Heritage and culture are very important to me. I hunt and fish, raise chickens, ducks and turkeys for meat, and wild harvest greens, berries and mushrooms. Growing my favorite heritage vegetables is part of my heritage and culture. GMO seeds aren’t available to back yard gardeners and homesteaders but if they were, they’d have no place in my garden.
Robin: You certainly know the meaning of “local foods” in your diet!!! Thanks for entering this giveaway. Good luck! Teresa
Heirlooms have the flavor, taste variety and the biodiversity we need!
Genetic diversity is the key to evolution! Without it our plant species would be more susceptible to disease and less likely to develop advantageous adaptations. Plus “same ol’, same ol'” is boring! I love trying out new varieties AND supporting small businesses.
It is important because once seeds are gone… they are gone forever.. we need to preserve and share the heirloom seeds we have and not buy from that big evil company
Because its makes better sense to keep something going that was good in the first place and helps with the mon culture type thinking we have these days…diversity of life and helping with nature..then Mother Earth helps us back .
It is important for us to save our Heirloom seeds for the future generations. When they finally prove this GMO is not good for us and the government takes notice those of us that have saved them will be able to feed our children and thier families.
I discovered Baker Creek a few years ago and have never been disappointed by what I have purchased from them. I love heirlooms for their flavor, uniqueness, and because they generally come from smaller businesses.
Food diversity is important to me for health, sustainability and flavor. Moreover, they are just so beautiful! The photography in this book is so appealing.
The world was not meant to ruin land and crops with GMO foods. I have just started the journey of doing my own garden and am using only heirloom seeds. I’m sure they taste better and its security knowing you can save the seeds
I absolutely insist on growing heirlooms in my garden. Baker Creek and Seed Saver’s Exchange are my bread and butter here. Not only do they taste better than store veggies (I didn’t realize until I was an adult that tomatoes even had a flavour!) but it’s so much nicer to know where your vegetable stock comes from. Even here in MN, my seeds have been started indoors in a cold-frame and are merrily sprouting.
We must grow heirlooms, to learn to save the seeds, so that we have none GMO foods in coming years.
Its important to preserve or heirloom foods because along with that we are preserving a way of life and mindset that is quickly vanishing in our fast paced and electronic world.
I think Heirloom varieties are great because it’s so neat to be able to eat a piece of history, something people have preserved on their own for sometimes hundreds of years!
I believe that plants from these seeds are just healthier and better for you. However, the historian in me just loves eating the same things as generations past!
I love new, and well technically old, vegetables. I love discovering all the varieties of heirloom vegetables. After spending a month in Europe, I find that the heirloom veggies that I’m finding locally are of the same quality as European veggies. And no GMO. Returning to how things are intended to be is very important to our family.
I have been wanting this book for SO long! I know there is nothing as important as gleaning all we can from this book with regards to heirloom variety seeds and plants. We really need to start paying attention to where and what the food that we eat comes from or we are ALL going to be in a lot of trouble! Thanks to Jere Gettle and many others that are like minded we are starting to pay better attention to not only what we buy, but where it came from as well.
I started my experiment, now love, of heirloom gardening with a lot of help from a friend about 3 years ago. Before I only had limited space and I would buy a few plants each year. The variety is so much better with heirloom seeds and to me, the plant and end product is of much better quality & taste.
When I garden with heirloom seeds or plants, not only do I love the variety of colors and the unusual-ness of the plant, I feel like I am truly gardening in an old fashioned way and preserving the past.
I am very new to gardening, and am just learning the difference between heirloom and hybrid, i like the fact that all they sell is heirloom. I would love to learn more about gardening, how to have a bountiful crop to share with family, friends, and neighbors. My kids eat more veggies now that i plant a larger variety!
Preserving biodiversity is extremely important to me. But, I was draw to the heirloom “table” in order to avoid genetically engineered foods. I’ve stayed because of the incredible taste of heirloom produce. Hooked for life.
I get so many of my seeds from Baker Creek – I just love what they are doing and their selection.
I really enjoy seeing “funky” vegetables and the varieties out there can boggle the mind. Colorful carrots, broccoli and hundreds of tomatoes – sign me up!
While we aren’t the “doomsday” type do believe that the best way to prepare for any eventuality is to live a sustainable lifestyle. While some folks try to save enough supplies to survive a catastrophe we value OP seeds and seed saving as a critical element of our little farmstead. And if the worst doesn’t come…we’ll be eating like royalty anyway!
I think that it is very important to preserve the heirloom seeds and plants, to much of our past just seems to vanish , so we need to hang on to what we can. Besides the heirloom produce seems to have so much more flavor and color both, which are important for health especially with the red and green and purple colors for antioxidants.
I am getting more health conscious as time goes by and need to eat more colorful and tasty fruits and veggies !
Preserving the past is so important. Growing beautiful food and eating locally is vital to our families and communities. Thanks for all that you do (and the great giveaway)!
I believe it is important to preserve heirloom foods because they are the original foods God created. They taste so much better. I have yet to find an heirloom tomato I do not like. I enjoy photographing my garden harvest as much as eating it. I am doing as much as I can to spread the word about heirloom foods, the dangers of GM foods, and how one can begin to live a more God-sufficient life instead of one that depends on man. I recently changed the format of my blog and am praying through how to use it to minister to others.
It’s more important now than ever to preserve good quality food or our future generations are doomed.
I am new to gardening. I love the idea of growing food that provides me with the means to grow more food from its seeds. I also love learning how many different and uniqure varieties of items there are like the different eggplants pictured. Who knew? I want to grow a wide variety of things to experiment with learning what I like and why. I’ve started gardening because I realize the importance of non-GMO, non-hybrid foods for my body and immune system. My health has improved tremendously just from the little bit I’ve done towards eating REAL food.
I think it’s all of the above! I want to preserve diversity because it’s important, there are things found in these veggies that aren’t found in other varieties, it’s important to hold onto culture, and I love nothing better than pulling an Atomic Red carrot out of the dirt in front of my astonished neighbors! Thanks for offering this wonderful giveaway!
I like the history of the Heirlooms. I think it’s really cool that I can grow a lettuce that is the exact same one that Thomas Jefferson grew or a pepper Nardello brought from Italy in the 1800’s. It’s also fun to share the bounty with friends at work becuase they never knew there were purple beans, black tomatoes or yellow cucumbers.
With most hybrids containing a suicide gene so that you cannot save seeds to reproduce the plants, heirlooms are important for our survival! But they also looks better, taste better, and are just more fun to grow!
I love the diversity that heirloom varieties gives us. We need to celebrate these heritage cultivars that have stood the tests of time and more.
I prefer heirloom because of the healthy, nutritional value it provides. I don’t have to worry the foods I feed to my children might carry genetically modified genes…or chemicals, for that matter.
I want to know where my food comes from. So, not only do I want to know the vegetables come from my garden, but also the seeds come from a place that I trust. It is only through companies like Baker Creek and small farmers like us, that we can combat the reach of companies like Monsanto. That company’s reach is far and wide. The seeds, plants, etc that they sell is not what it seems. I do not know what it is, but it is not what it looks like. When I buy your seeds and plant the seeds in my garden, I know what I harvest is good for me and my family. Thank you for what you do!
I am passionately anti-GMO, and what it means to my personal nutrition and the health of those I love. To me, true heirloom seeds are the guaranteed genuine article, as nature intended, undefiled and full of diverse nutrition and life. So many crops these days are “contaminated” with GMO strains, even the backyard gardener like myself has to be conscious of what seeds are planted in my garden. Nutrition is vital to good health and well being. May we all return to true food and heirloom seeds!
I was a “back to the lander” in the 70’s and elarned then about growing and preserving my own food. I have recently been going back to those ideas and wanting to get a garden going again. I was surprised how few of the great varieties of vegetables and fruits are no longer available just in the past 20 years. The old varieties are the foundation of all our modern hybrids. we need them!
I am hopeful that we can keep these wonderful and great hierloom varities. Book like this, help keep them around.
I support heirloom, organic farming (and Baker Creek Seeds!) because I want to maintain genetic diversity, and the history of our foods. I just can’t believe that it is good to put chemicals and GMO’s in our body, no matter what Monsanto and the FDA tell us!
I support the continuation of heirloom varieties of plants and animals! My main reason is genetic diversity. Monoculture and depending on just a few varieties lead to a food system that is vulnerable to climate change, developing diseases and pests. Such a food system could lead to famine. Plus, heirloom varieties have been developed for their unique qualities, and each heirloom contains a unique combination of genes that would be forever lost if we let them die out.
And I agree with others–heirloom plants produce the best tasting food Plus, we can save seeds and not be dependent on Big Ag in order to feed ourselves, or we can buy seed from small businesses with good values selling sustainable seed. It’s all good!
We have A small garden and saving seeds saves us money.
The great taste is A bonus.
Vegetables especially organic are expensive so having the garden however small is A blessing.
LOVE heirloom seeds. Makes me feel like I am not contributing to big corporations and who knows what kind of seeds I get, but trying to keep something alive from the past. I love how they florish, unlike “store bought” kinds. My husband and I are also eating all natural and growing our own food is HUGE in our life. We love it!
I choose heirloom foods for several reasons.
The zombie apocalypse is near. I can grow heirloom veggies now in my garden and stockpile the seeds for later. No GMOs so I know my veggies won’t turn anyone into a zombie, either. The unique look many varieties have are nifty, too. I can sell them pretty easily at local markets and use the money for more guns. Yay!
So yeah… zombies, seed-saving, no GMOs, and new guns. That sums it up pretty well.
I think that the agri-biodiversity that heirloom varieties represent is so important, that I am starting a company dedicated to publishing information about them and helping people find and select varieties that will do well in their local climate.
Our garden heritage is a living one that must be preserved and remade every year. In each seed is the collected wisdom, luck, determination and the ghosts of our past. I wished I could meet all the rough hands that touched these plants.
Thanks! I’ve never really been into home gardening, beyond an occasional squash or watermelon patch, mostly because it was hard to find the time. But I have some property now, and I’d like to grow some of my own fruits and veggies… if I can keep the wild rabbits at bay long enough to do so.
I’m also politically active, and AWARE of the issues with GMO seeds and crops, and I want more control over what I eat and where it comes from.
The only seeds I’ve bought this year have been from Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds. Everything has germinated well, tasted delicious, and looked beautiful. I look forward to experimenting more with different heirlooms to see which ones grow best in each little niche of the backyard. I hear the book is wonderful!
Heirlooms are in it for the long haul. When this era of fad alterations goes away, we’re really going to need those tried-and-true varieties that know how to take care of themselves without being babied. Besides, the vast majority of heirlooms taste better.
Heirlooms are very important to preserve because with the developement of GMOs we risk contamination of unaltered crops. GMOs are bound to fail and if we only have GE seeds left that may or may not be viable or useful we won’t have enough food. Heirlooms are almost always guaranteed to succeed, and without the use of pesticides and herbicides. Not to mention that heirlooms plants are so much more beautiful and flavorful. We need to preserve our past for a better future. I am 18 years old by the way, and I have an intense passion for heirloom seeds and plants.
I believe in heirloom foods for many reasons. One we need to preserve the diversity in our food! One virus, one pest and whole scores of crops are gone. Diversity ensures a future for various species of plants AND animals! Two, the taste of an organic heirloom food is so much more incredible than that of store bought produce. Three, I want my boys to know what my grandparents grew and their grandparents did. Heritage and knowledge is still an important part of where we come from. It’s important to pass on. Lastly, in this instant gratification society we’ve grown up in, we forget that sometimes just putting a little bit more elbow grease into something yields so many more rewards than what’s becoming the norm anymore. I’ve fed heirlooms to family and friends and their shock at the taste, texture and overall appearance is fun to watch! They had no idea how great they could be.
Thank you for your dedication to heritage seeds and for all the information you share with us.
The reason I think heritage seeds should be maintained is because I think God intended us to eat foods as He made them. According to the Bible we are not to eat mingled seeds.
I am in love with heirloom varieties! They taste better, are always heartier and are just much more fun to grow. I love the diversity I get within my plantings, why settle for one inferior tomato when you can have several great ones. Plus I love saving the seeds with my kiddo for the next season. There’s so much great stuff about growing heirlooms I could go on for days, and that’s without even touching on the importance of preserving our biodiversity and seed heritage.
We need heirlooms varietals for diversity, flavor, interest and preservation! Experimenting with new seeds and creating our own zone hardy strains of favorites is fun, challenging and rewarding. There is something so comforting in having the ability to grow safe, delicious and nutritious food for your family, friends and neighbors. Baker Creek has been a long time favorite and I am happy to have discovered your blog!!
This is my first year being “aware” of heirloom vegetables. I feel as if I will be growing a garden of “history!”
Growing heirlooms allows anyone for the price of a packet of seeds to grow a little treasure. I love the savings I get when I spend less than $3 on a packet of seeds and have enough to eat, freeze, can and share with the neighbors.
I recently have just learned about heirloom seeds and it immediately took me back to what types of food my grandparents grew and how it had disappeared from my diet and that of my families. I am now learning everything I can about this and wanting to support it and get the words out. It is part of our heritage , the food tastes and is better for us and I don’t want that knowledge and good healthy and beautiful food being lost forever from my posterity. I’m on a new mission to educate my children and grandchildren.
I like the heirloom seeds because you can replant the seeds it produces.
Having made a career of work in the commercial food processing industry, it does not require more than one side-by-side tasting to easily distinguish between the richly flavored foods of our forefathers and the bland genetically modified products so prevalent today. When God created this world, He did so with a grand plan in mind. For humans to even remotely think they can improve upon his perfect will is ridiculous at best. With all the so-called “technology” available to us today, we continue to find that the simple methods of agriculture that have served for centuries are still the most effective and sustainable. Even weeds that some work so diligently to prevent their growth serve a purpose. Fortunately for us, heirloom seeds serve the purpose of providing us great taste, improved storage/ shelf life, and enhanced nutrition.
This is my first year heirloom gardening, and I am addicted! As a mother of two and one on the way, I find myself growing more conscious of well…. what we are growing and eating. The future needs to know what real unmodified food is and they need the health that is provided by these untainted plants. I read more and more about the nasty side effects of GMOs and am excited that I have a healthy alternative to what I use to think was the only option. Not to mention it is such a great way to bond, and educate children in this area!
Heirloom fruits & veggies have so much more flavor & nutrition. Most veggies & fruit that stores sell have lost flavor, smell & nutrition for the sake of ease of storage & transport. I know that the “old seeds” are better for you and your families. I want to teach kids to be a part of nature, they learn patience, responsibility, respect for the earth, the excitement of ‘doing it yourself’ & nurturing a living thing. Then the joy of yummy food & sharing it with others.
After a quarter century of gardening in Interior Alaska and choosing the shortest season hybrids I could find, I am in the Lower 48. I landed in an heirloom Tomato Patch in Central WA state and immediately began harvesting seeds. Just over 3-years later, my seeds are becoming well known, even as far as in Illinois, due to their exceptional germination rates and local productivity. I don’t grow everything, just the goods that like growing here best. I don’t know everything, but have never been happier as a gardener!!! Alaska taught me a lot.
Trying to become a self-sufficient gardener in the midst of a projected 20-year drought (central Texas), it is quickly becoming obvious that “one-size-fits-all” seeds just won’t succeed here. We need to return to localized seeds — growing plants that historically have done well in our specific climate, in our specific soil. Heirloom plants offer us the best opportunity to create a garden that can prosper without artificial fertilizer, pesticides and a water bill that rivals the air-conditioning bill!
Heirlooms to me represent everything corporate food giants do not. They are the flavor, variety, beauty and enjoyment of food variety, whereas corporate food interests lie only in a food product that will produce abunantly with heavy chemical involvement, and last a long time in transit/sale, without regard to nutrition or safety.
When we start to lose an animal species, everyone rallies around to protect it, no matter the extreme measures or expense involve. But most people seem not to notice that we are losing tremendous numbers of plant species, or that the cost of those losses could be greater than those of any animal species we lose. For our very survival could be at stake. The cure for many of the diseases we see infecting our populations today could be in those plants (food or otherwise) whose extinction people just don’t worry about. I guess plant just don’t stir up the emotions in people who can’t look into lonely eyes in a photograph. Maybe our endangered species list should show some sad lonely vegetables whose importance on earth could be more valuable than any of us realize.
I also enjoy knowing that the seeds that come from my plants will produce true, producing more of the same wonderful foods year after year, unlike hybrid plants. I have enjoyed several seed varieties from Baker Creek, and have told all my gardening friends about them as well! Kudos, Gettle Family, for helping preserve our vegetable heritage!
There are several reasons I love Heritage seeds. One the taste is heavenly. Two GMO foods are so not healthy for us and we need to ban them. Three I really think saving our heritage is as important as our health! I plan on ONLY growing Heritage seeds in my green house!!! Please keep up the GREAT work you are doing in saving the heritage seeds. A lot of us are so Grateful!
Heirloom foods are the way nature intended them to be. “Don’t mess with Mother Nature”.
As and archaeologist and the director of a historic site that was once a huge tenant-farmed estate, I believe firmly in the importance of heirloom plants and seeds. They represent our agricultural heritage (the Tom Watson Watermelon was named for the man who owned the site I manage). Heirlooms are more flavorful, as well as interesting. I believe they are healthier even if they are not inoculated with extra this and more that because the wide array of colors represented in one food type (tomatoes for instance) certainly MUST have a wider range of anti-oxidents and flavinoids. And, finally, I believe entirely in the need of children to KNOW where their food comes from and to be participatory in the growing process. At our site, summer campers plant seeds, weed the garden, harvest the garden, cook with the produce, feed the chickens and collect the eggs. After 1 week of this we have CONVERTS! We’ll by this book whether we win one or not!
I am setting up a greenhouse and want to use only heirloom and non gmo seeds. Heirloom reminds me of my grandmother.
Heirloom foods developed the way they did for a reason. Heirloom seeds are naturally adapted to their environment and will produce a better quality product that is more visually appealing, tastier, better for you, and better for the planet. It’s win-win all the way around!
As our food supply is threatened by “new and improved” genetically modified seeds, most people are still not aware that what is on their plates has mutated. Those of us who insist on good seed, from reliable sources, can prevent the extinction of “real food”. Saving seeds is saving memories, saving the past, it is also saving our future…
I prefer heirloom because of their history and longevity. I know when I use heirloom seeds that there is a greater chance of success and less likely to sucumb to disease. I also like the fact that the seeds are not genetically modified for greater chance of food allergies.
I believe heirloom gardening is a vital aspect in assuring biodiversity in agriculture. Many of these varieties have proven taste and disease resistance that has stood the test of time and popular gardening trends. The heirloom varieties are visually interesting offering various shapes/sizes/colors that we aren’t used to seeing everyday in our local grocery stores. Heirlooms provide aesthetics and vitality to your kitchen table with unparalleled taste and freshness!
Biodiversity is important to our planet as a whole and preserving heirloom seeds of every type is extremely beneficial. We’ve found this to be true of micro climates and it translates to our planet as a whole. Heirloom foods are proven survivoirs (they might be heros in the future).
My family loves heirloom produce! Biodiversity is important to our planet, it’s healthier nutrition, and it’s just plain fun! Who can look at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog and not be delirious to immediately start ordering seeds and planting a huge garden? We are limited only by finances and garden space – but what a harvest.
Though “funky” heirloom foods intrigue my family and delight my eyes, their nutrition is tops for me. I cannot imagine the long term impact of this “tinkering” — since the short term to date has been quite frightening. Thanks for the drawing, how fun!
Hi,simply stated,once they’re gone,they’re gone,and what a loss that would be,not only for our gardens,but for our sense of history,as well.The names and the stories alone are worth the effort of saving these seeds and plants.I needn’t go on about the superior taste of heirloom food.Anyone who has ever eaten a favorite heirloom tomato,bean or squash can tell you all about it.Better yet,grow some ,you’ll see.
I know genetic diversity is absolutely neccessary to maintain the health of any eco-system, even in your backyard. You can’t be successful if you have a shallow gene pool. You cannot buy food this fresh, healthy and loved. The nutrition and flavor not to mention classic good looks are something to be cherished and passed on for the next generation. Garden like your life depends on it, because it probably does!
Lincoln Barber
2867 Randolph Rd
Edmonton, KY 42129
We continue to lose important Biodiversity is our seed soon we will only have big farm foods with no flavor.
Heirlooms are the easiest way to share, participate in and preserve our food history and heritage. Plus- they are gorgeous, incredibly tasty and quirky to boot!
I support Heirloom seeds and non GMO seeds because truly we have been bestowed with so much variety that we do not need to fool around with what Mother Nature gave us.
Maintaining diversity is very important and I definitely enjoy growing funky varieties. My biggest interest in growing heirlooms is the additional nutrition that many of them carry compared to later varieties.
First, I want to tell you that I absolutely LOVE your catalogs. They are so beautiful and appetizing.
I love the heirloom vegetables, they have so much more flavor. Especially the tomatoes. I have to say that I do love to try new things and especially the unique seeds.
Keep up the good work and I hope to bring my granddaughters to your festival this year.
I teach Biology at Glendale High School in Springfield, and became a recipient of a D.I.R.T. Grant, which provided a high tunnel, raised beds, a work shed and tools etc. I wrote a class proposal and am now teaching Gardening- 2 classes a day. It has been a life changing experience for my classes, we now have a thriving 48 foot high tunnel and 6 raised beds and a 50×50 garden, each class works 90 minutes in the garden each day. Gardening is hands on Science at its finest, our curriculum includes economics, food systems, legislation and political activism, nutrition, and heirloom genetics! Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds has donated the vast bulk of the seeds we grow. We have had bumper crops of purple top turnips, Crapaudine beets (great lesson in selective breeding- they are so different from the idea most kids have of beets), arugula, carrots, radishes (so many varieties), and greens out our ears, and so much more. My students beg for cooking day where we have turnips, salad, greens, melons did not even make it inside most days, and so much more. I could tell you so much more but next time you are in Springfield, just come by the north side of Glendale and visit it for yourself! Community gardening at its best. Thanks Baker Creek!
I would love to win a copy of this book. I would be happy to give it a review on Amazon too.
My number one reason for using heirloom veggies is in the name of biological diversity. Second reason is because they’re gorgeous…unlike the bland, commonplace newer veggie types!
Thank you for doing what you do to preserve and provide heirloom seed and the heritage for future generations. I always loved the connection to the land and the nurturing process from ground preparation to harvest. Sharing with neighbors and seeing the various varieties that others grew was always a special joy. The flavor of home grown fruits and vegetables can not be duplicated or surpassed by any short cut technology or engineering. There is no more honest work and no better way to bring up children. The principle of seed time and harvest was established from the beginning of time. There are those that wish to control, manipulate, and monopolize food production. Genetically altered food varieties have been proven to not function normally in either animals or humans. We must preserve and protect this people/land/food connection for our present, our future, and in honor of those who have worked so hard to maintain it in the past.
What a great bunch of questions. Personally I find a few hybrids worth their selection and breeding. Mostly I prefer the broader value of heirloom varieties. Varieties [funky ones at times] with intense and diverse colors, flavors, textures, uses, etc… capture my senses. Plus we don’t worry about our family ingesting GM produce containing genetic material from species we would never imagine on our plate. Our family began practicing seed-saving in the early 90s and may have been among the earliest customers of Baker Creek. We support seed companies that work to preserve the genetics freely available to all and able to be sustainably saved by the individual grower, for personal independence, increased nutritional value in local foods, and lacking legal consequence which comes of violating current seed patenting for commercial seed of questionable long-term value. We do our best to educate local customers at the farmers markets on the value of a diverse food system. We treasure diversity in our diet and in our fields, and find it more than sensible to work to save and grow varieties that are not being saved commercially. Go Funky Food!
I have 4 kids and am teaching them all about gardening and eating healthy. I only plant heirloom seeds. I love the taste and all the different varieties there are! I also love Baker Creek because of the wonderful descriptions in their catalog. I think it’s very important to plant heirlooms because nowadays you don’t know if something is genetically modified or not. There’s just something wrong about modifying something that is already perfect.
I think it’s important to educate our children on different, unique and rare varieties of food (and other stuff too 😉 and heritage seeds is a great way of doing that! I love gardening with my kids and they are WAY more likely to eat a veggie they’ve grown themselves. And, if it’s purple beans or radishes with circles through the middle, so much the better!
We love heirloom veggies as they taste better … you can taste the difference in the varieties and know that you are eating something super yummy even if they don’t all look grocery store shelf perfect!
Food diversity is important to me for health, sustainability and flavor. Moreover, they are just so beautiful!
I think it’s very important to help preserve pieces of the old world. As we have seen through the ages these foods were created perfectly to start with. Our ancestors flourished on these foods. They didn’t face the health crisis that are plaguing so many people these days. I highly disagree with people trying to “perfect” plants for their own sake of ease and monetary gain. I shutter to think what would happen if the heirloom varieties were to become extinct. It is enthralling to me to be working in my garden and think of how far that little seed has come. How many generations it has been passed down from. To think of my ancestors eating the same food so many years back.
I want to be sure my children and grandchildren and so forth are eating food that is vital to their health. Food that will sustain and nourish them the way it was intended. And to be able to sink their little teeth into a warm summer tomato that doesn’t taste like cardboard. That is why heirlooms are so important to me and why I will continue to grow and preserve the seeds of these precious gifts for our future generations.
I think its inportant for us to try to grow our own food as much as possible ,and to be as natural as possible there are so many chemicles in our food we dont know what our childrens future will be, And to have heiloom seeds is like a liitle better assurance for our future. And we know when we eat our own its better for us, And its fufilling to know we grew it and maybe our ancesters grew the same things we are today. I think we need a more natural earth.
Thanks everybody for all the great comments about why heirloom seeds are so important for protecting our food diversity, as well as the many dangers of genetically engineered seeds. There are too many responses to reply personally to each of you, but just know that your comments are important — and that you’re all entered in this book giveaway! Good luck.
I love heirlooms for a few reasons: They taste better. The colors and shapes are exciting and different. There’s a certain romance to planting and eating seeds that people have for centuries before me. It’s frightening what’s happening to our seeds these days; if these aren’t preserved, who knows what we’ll have in the future, if anything…
The older I get the more I appreciate home grown, heirloom vegetables! I have believed for a long time what we eat is making us sick. From highly processed foods to evil empire genetically modified foods, we are eating things that are just not natural. I want good, natural, wholesome food for my family.
We want to eat food that matches our memories of garden fresh vegetables we knew as children. The rewards of gardening have always been delicious, but limited. This year, since we have moved and are beginning a new and bigger garden, it seemed appropriate to grow only the best; heirloom seeds that like our memories, have stood the test of time. The wide variety we found at the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company was amazing.
I am a believer in not only preserving heirloom foods, but supporting them to thrive for many reasons! Their beauty, their rich history, their nutrients, all in comparison to all of this that is lacking in the GMO’s that are being pushed on society. Have many Baker Creek Seeds germinating inside right now, so excited!
Heirloom foods have amazing flavor!
I grow heirloom fruits and vegetables not only for their taste, the joy of eating something beautifully healthy and nutritious that I can’t buy at the grocery store, and for keeping our remaining seed stock alive under conditions in my area, but also for the sense of being a part of the continuation of history. I am a genealogy nut and most of my ancestors were farmers. I like to think that I may be growing the same varieties that they grew. I am even growing a few heirloom trees. I have an apple variety that was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson and one that is the oldest known English apple, from the 1200s.
We have to preserve our seeds for the well being of future generations!
Considering the financial and political state of our country, I think that it is imperative that we prepair for hard times ahead. I have always loved to garden and heirloom vegetables just taste better and as a bonus I can save seeds year to year.
The diversity of heirlooms is very important. Without heirlooms our food supply could diminish over time. Plus, nothing beats the color, flavor & variety of nature’s art.
I prefer to eat heirloom varieties of veggies and fruits because they taste SO much better! I think it is important to preserve the many varieties of plants because without them, we would not have a diverse ecosystem.
I am all for heirloom breeds/varieties. I am a poultry judge so I always see all these new fads that come and go. Just like other heritage breeds of livestock, people need to work with the heirloom and heritage plants too. So many people are used to the hybrids that are sold in the little pony packs in front of the local grocery stores that they don’t even think twice about buying them. When they go to the farmers markets and taste the heirloom varieties of tomatoes or cucumbers, they are amazed that they have so much flavor and they realize that there is more to life than the few basic commercial hybrids
I have bought seeds from Baker Creek every year since 2006. I have experienced great success with the large varieties of seeds I have tried. But most of all I have grown in my feelings about food and the realization that all of my life the grocery stores have convinced me carrots should be orange, cucumbers should be green, and tomatoes should be red as long as they taste bland. Growing purple tomatoes and white cucumbers and yellow watermelons has shown me food can be beautiful, fun, healthy, and tasty.
I am a huge fan of Baker Creek and have used their seeds exclusively for two years. My husband and I are very passionate about growing our own vegetables as well as buying local products. We have found that heirloom vegetables not only taste better, but the plants are much more hardy! It is so important to us that we support sustainable living. Our planet needs protecting!
I am a growing fan of heirloom seeds, largely because they tend to taste better, grow more easily, and I love that they aren’t busy supporting agri-giants like Monsanto, whose practices I do not support. If I’m going to spend my money on the seeds I grow to create food for my family, I want that money to go to a company whose practices I support, and whose food is both beautiful, and delicious! Thank you Baker Creek!
What makes a people a people is their traditions and culture. This great nation was built by people from around the world, many of them farmers and gardeners who lucky for us, brought with them seeds and recipes to the new world. Heirloom seeds represent the roots of our history and without them, we would be allowing yet another great piece of it die. So for me, heirlooms represent generations of tradition and I hope enough of us appreciate this fact and continue the tradition.
Heirlooms are what we do. We can say we’re different and offer food choices, but when our peppers, tomatoes and other things LOOK different then it’s something people can see. There are traits each variety has that, like purebred livestock, are worth preserving for those traits. I like the difference in mini bell peppers, and the variety of colors and tastes the heirloom world has to offer.
We not only grow this for ourselves, but offer the same for those buying our farm shares and packages. This lets others experience the heirloom varieties even if they don’t have room to grow it themselves.
I love all things with a heritage, roses, apples, peaches and vegetables. I want to know the history of how they came into our diet. What most people don’t realize is that the food they get at the supermarket is such a small part of what should be and is available, but if you want the really best stuff, you are going to have to grow it yourself. Grow it and save your seeds.
There are so many reasons to grow and eat Heirloom fruits and vegetables, it’s hard to pick just one! There’s the very real need of preserving sources of genetic diversity in our current mono-culture farm system. There’s the fantastic flavor and superior nutrition. The amazing and often unique beauty that can’t be found in other varieties. And then there is the history… the story that goes with each and every variety of how it was loved and nurtured for decades or even centuries, in one specific region or in some cases by one specific person, to become the plant it is today! I choose heirlooms for all those reasons. I’ve fallen head over heals in love with them and will continue to dedicate my garden to each variety I pick.
As a dog breeder and student of genetics, I have learned the importance of being able to “go back in time” if possible to correct mistakes of the present, brought about by bad choices.
In gardening/farming, if we rely solely on hybrids and new varieties, we have the potential of getting ourselves into a bottleneck. Without the seeds from the original plants/varieties, there is no way to “undo” what has been done. If there IS a way to scrap a pathway gone awry and start over, it hinges upon preserving the heirloom varieties.
Beyond this, the history of a culture is preserved in what they bring forward into the future. Often, seed that has been produced from varieties in a given area of the country, and tested over time to be the best for that area, are a MUCH better choice to assure good performance than hybrids that are often developed in a central location without regard for the various climates it might be used in.
We grew 9 different types of dry beans last summer and enjoyed picking, winnowing, sorting, and marveling at the diversity of flavors and colors. We enjoy discovering the many unique varieties of heritage seeds for all vegetables. Sustaining our seed viability is so very important in our today’s world of weird science and amoral corporate decision making. We can have 100% trust in food we grow in our own garden.
I want to save heirloom seeds, because I want to save our past, the seeds that our colonial ancestors brought with them when they started their homesteads, and colonies, the seeds that grew in the dirt that our ancestors toiled over and made theirs and passed down to their families. I am buying all heirloom seeds this year from Bakers Creek and from our local seed company that sells Appalachian heirloom seeds, passed down and saved by families in our Appalachian Mountains. I want to learn how to save the seeds the right way, the way our ancestors did, so that maybe one day my family can do the same thing and teach their children, so the art of seed saving won’t die, and the seeds from our past won’t die either.
I don’t know if I can pick just one reason why heirlooms are important to me. I love the superior taste, and some of the crazy interesting varieties. But maybe most of all, I like the connection I feel to all those who have come before – to the people who tended these same varieties all those years ago with the same hope, joy, and promise as I do today.
I support heirlooms because I love the history behind them, I think they taste fantastic (most of the time), they look cool, they’re a gardening adventure, and I can save the seed from them and pass it on to someone else to love.
I love Baker Creek… I come from a long line of farmers and savers, but to be able to purchase seeds for plants I haven’t seen since I was boy on the farm is wonderful. My folks and grandfolks saved seed every year. I will never forget Brandywine and Cherokee Tomatoes sliced by the plate full in summer and jared up in Granny’s kitchen for winter, tomatoes that taste like tomatoes! What a concept! Big pots of Jacobs Coats (I think they are the same beans some folks call Cow Peas) boiling with ham hocks for supper, Purple Hulled peas piled high in the Spring. Huge cobblers made from White Peaches, fruit as big as Daddy’s hand, the trees were offspring of trees planted from seed brought to Oklahoma by my 3x’s great-grandparents when they came from North Carolina on the Trail, they also brought the original crop of Purple and Brandywine Tomatoes west with them as seeds. We have more of their offspring in our yard, grown every year and seed carefully preserved for the next Spring. And let’s not forget Kansa corn untouched and unchanged for generations and grown by my Kaw ancestors for time immemorial before the settlers came, boiled with Juniper to make Ho-mi-ne. (Hominy for English speakers) Ah the taste of good food and the wonderful memories it brings back.Thanks to folks like those at Baker Creek I can feed my family these wonderful heirlooms than their ancestors ate and I remember so fondly. I hope places like this and like minded people like us that preserve our own seeds will be around for my Grandchildren and later generations to enjoy.. Keep up the great work ya’ll.
I grew up in the midwest and loved gardening with my grandparents. I was very happy in college to have a plot in the community organic garden learning from my elders there.
When my children were young they loved working and playing in our garden, eating veggies on the spot. It was good not to worry about having to wash anything other than dirt off what they ate, and also that they started off from the first tasting the diversity and deliciousness of heirloom varieties we could not find even at farmer’s markets at that time.
The second year I grew asparagus I was very protective of every little stalk. My daughter toddled over to inspect the little plants – I thought she was a perfect tiny copy of me bending down to get a closer look. But she was grazing! She nibbled each one down to just an inch or two above the ground. I was laughing so hard I could not get the word “Stop!” out of my mouth.
It has been one of the great joys of my life to introduce their friends in the neighborhood and school to seeds and gardening. One year I brought in “penny packets” of mixed seeds for their classmates as part of a diversity celebration and was shocked that so many children were unaware that seeds grew plants. Some thought I had brought in trail mix. It was heartbreaking to me to hear the comments. But just a month later students were stopping me in the hallway to tell me that different plants grew from the seeds they had planted – and others told me that they had asked their grandparents about seeds after hearing me talk about my early days gardening with mine. They thought it was important to tell me that the seeds that looked like corn kernels would probably grow into corn plants (I loved hearing ‘probably’ – they were budding scientists back then) and they had been told that when the plants were grown, they not only produced food but they developed seeds that could be planted the next Spring. Or rather, each plant produced one seed – they could not process that there might be more than one. Many years later some children were still reporting to me what they grew. They loved that some very tiny seeds grew very tall plants, that some grew root veggies and others grew big prickly squash plants. And being children, they loved that radish seeds sprout so soon.
I am always hoping that they are teaching their children what they learned so long ago. And since for so many families, knowledge about gardening and farming skipped a generation, I hope they taught their parents, too.
Thanks for keeping heirloom seeds going and offering so many varieties of seeds in your catalog. I will request your book at our local public library, hoping they will keep several copies on hand for those who have strong family ties to planting, harvesting and seed saving; and especially for those who will start a new tradition for their own families.
Heirloom varieties not only taste better…. I feel they’re better for the planet and, of course, us! There is something ultimately comforting about knowing that I can grow the same beans, beets and hollyhocks that my great grandma did. I’ve even raised the same breed of chickens that she did! And now its time for me to share these with my grandchildren. A wonderful connection, through generations of family, to the Earth herself. It doesn’t get much better than that
Because diversity is Important & Tasty!
I’m trying to put the least amount of frankenfood possible into my body! And treating food as my first medicine! I’m hoping to have my organic urban garden booming soon
I grow heirloom seeds because I love having a little piece of history in my backyard.
We’re in Missouri and LOVE supporting Baker Creek Seeds. We choose heirloom seeds because we want to grow tried and true varieties that are better tasting and better for us, without the use of chemical fertilizers. Happy gardening, everyone!
I am a firm believer in plant diversity. The heirloom plants in general already have what it takes to survive if grown & allowed to. The heirloom fruits and vegetables have so many different amazing flavors I always want to try more just to experience them. Once you’ve experienced the wonderful flavors how could you want to go back to the bland flavors of the mass produced foods? I also want to have real food for my family & myself & not chemicals made to look like food.
I look forward to growing new and unusual vegetables every year and the Baker Creek seed catalog has been my favorite thing to read most winter nights! I was really excited when my new seeds arrived and can’t wait to plant them. I appreciate honest, heirloom seeds and knowing that I can provide my family and customers with pure, non GMO vegetables makes me feel good about what I grow.
If we don’t protect crop diversity (having already lost WAY too much), we may face famine in the future.
I have just recently discovered the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog and cannot wait the receive my order. I very much appreciate the qualities of heirloom vegetables. I have been harvesting and planting an Italian bean seed for many years. These seeds have been in the family for several generations. When my children were small they kept me updated on the daily growth of the beans after planting as they much prefered them to any other bean or vegetable for that matter. I am fascinated by the Heirloom Life Gardener book and would love to own it. Thanks for your consideration.
I love growing heirloom varieties because they are classics: veggies as nature intended them, with all their diverse characteristics born of natural adaptations to environment rather than bred by human intervention for some current idea of what will sell better. Give me better taste any day over commercial appeal.
Wow, thanks for all the great responses so quickly. It’s wonderful to hear that so many gardeners are already committed to growing heirlooms, sharing seeds and keeping these heritage foods alive in our culture. Your stories are great. We love hearing them. Teresa
We eat mainly a plant based diet, and I noticed that so many of the recipes call for the same things. I love experimenting, so I started going to the farmer’s market to pick up different things. Then we started gardening, and tonight we had a salad with lettuce from our garden! I think it’s very important to have variety and interesting foods, looking forward to reading this book and learning more about our vegetable history!
Pick me!
I would love to win this book and learn more about how I can put more Heirlooms in to our garden plan. So many veggies seem to be grown for how well they will hold for the market and not how they taste. Grown for looking good not feeding you well. For those of us that can walk to the garden and pick fresh, heirlooms are the way to go
The biggest reason I think heirlooms are important is to maintain biodiversity… remember the Irish potato famine? Beyond threats of crop failure its just good to have variety in life. The joy of seeing funny shapes and colors in the garden and the range of flavors.
I grew up living with a single father who worked a great deal. We ate out every night. I can only remember my dad cooking a few times. When my second child was born, I decided that my children were going to have healthier food and a better opportunity for health. We started a little garden in our back yard and worked it together. We decided to home educate our children so that they could really learn about work. After about five years of city living, my husband bought a farm and we began raising sheep for milk and learning more and more about working hard to provide good food. We’ve tried to raise the healthiest food we could raise for our children, but more than that we’ve tried to teach them that eating healthy food is the choice they should make for themselves and their families. Heirloom seeds are our heritage and they are also a legacy we are leaving for the next generation.
I grow mostly heirloom varieties in my garden When I start the seeds I always do extra and share them with the neighbors and friends. I find the more people I can share with the more will start purchasing heirloom seeds. Every time we make a purchase we are in a sense voting and helping a movement to last and succeed.
I have just discovered heirloom seeds and Baker Creek. With my limited research it only makes sense that we should preserve the seeds that God provided. I think it is sad that not only is our food becoming anything but, but even our seeds are being changed so they aren’t healthy for us. We have to protect our food supply for ourselves, and for future generations.
Local
Ordinary (not)
Vegetable
Eater
LOVE heirlooms!
Heirloom gardening is the roots to where gardening came from. To keep these plant going is important not to mention how much better the produce is compared to most hybrid produce. Keep the roots alive!
We have some old time salad peas that I plant each year. They have been handed down several generations now. I like to grow my own produce because the taste is so much better than store bought produce. We also know what has been used to get our seeds in the ground and what has or has not been added to the food we eat.
My wife and I usually can most of the produce we grow. It is a family affair and we look forward to our first produce of the season.
I look forward to my garden catalogues each year and eagerly look for new and interesting varieties that I have not tried before. People who have not had the good fortune to raise their own garden do not realize what it takes to get food to their tables. Good luck to each and every one in the drawing.
Heirloom is important because it is real food with real nutrients and good taste … GMO is bad – it is killing us all and most of us had no idea we were eating GMO until just recently … being 60 years old, I had wondered what happend to the taste of our food over the years but I kept telling myself it was my imagination that nothing tasted like it did when I was a kid eating veggies from my Grandmother’s garden and the meat was not the same from my childhood either … now I know why and plan to eliminate as much GMO as humanly possible from my future diet!!!!
Tasty Brandywine pink tomatoes, melt in your mouth sweetcorn, tender and mouth watering butternut squash. All of these favorite heirloom varieties I have grown and enjoyed in my own garden (among other vegetables and fruits). Taste is number one, independence from a culture that seeks to “corner the market” on seeds by hybridizing everything is a second concern…but one that is important as well. Heirloom seeds offer more variety, interesting variety than anywhere else. Happy Planting and Harvesting!
Have been growing food plants for decades, saving my own and friends’ seeds….would adore to study the Gettles’ amazing book and then pass it on to family and friends.
I love heirlooms because I think it is our future. I don’t trust Monsanto’s so-called produce to sustain us in the long run (well, we know it won’t) and the seed saving efforts of the Gettles and so many others are soooo important!!!! Hurray to all of you (and us) who are trying to spread the word!
Heirlooms vegetables have been around for centuries even dating back to the beginning of time. Nature’s diversity will always produce what is needed for any market or just your eating pleasures at home. Clients at our vegetable farm stands and markets do like the knowledge that they can see and tour our vegetables growing in full view of them. They watch as the honeybees make sure that another season will be instore next year as they work the plants in making the fruits that will sustain our farm and their needs too.. We pride ourselves in the growing and havesting but also in the displaying of these fruits and vegetables in ways the colors mix producing a summer picture that looks as good as it taste.
We made it to the seed shop in Missouri last summer! I would ♥ to have this book! Thank you for the generous giveaway.
Heirloom seeds and the veggies that grow from them are vitally important to our culinary future, our future as independent gardeners and our future health. We need them for our independence in the kitchen and the garden, and to ensure we have the right to grow food we know and want. Food that is nutritious again, not the crap offered on the supermarket shelves. Food that has flavor. Food that is interesting. Food that most children today do not fully understand has a distinct flavor. Our kids today don’t know the true taste of tomatoes, or peas or melons dripping with juice.
They deserve to know.
In today’s world we have lost much of culture, passion for the real taste of food, i have gardened for years and even buying seed growing loosing that ole fashion taste, how about what real food looks like! not some of these perfect looking veggies. we all need to promote our culinary heritage- sharing our harvest, share our seeds , share resources. We are not entitled-we have to find our way back and introduce to the past so generations to come can be healthy and clean bodies. My preference is funky veggies, awsome taste and the satisfaction of harvest. Would love to read and have the book for myself and friends and family!!!
I love the heirloom varieties because they taste really good and you can save the seeds and grow the same thing next year. The seeds don’t revert back to the original variety.
We started growing a garden because the produce taste like food should taste. Then we started saving seeds because so many good varities where getting harder to get. Then we started saving “local” heirlooms. Now 75 tomatos, 30 beans, 10 squash, 15 peppers, 7 corns, etc. latter we sell heirloom plants and veggies at our local farmers market and to local resturants. Thanks Baker Creek. Much of our collection came from you!
Every year my children look forward to heirloom seed catalogs and specifically Baker Creek’s because the pictures are beautiful and so tasty looking. We all love things like purple and yellow beans, blue podded peas, yellow watermelon and look forward to growing them. This is more than just a way to get and keep them excited about preserving genetic diversity in a sneaky way, but also a way to link them to their grandparents and great grandparents who grew their own food from the garden.
My father now lives in another state so we look forward to trading seeds, stories, and advice on how to grow and preserve things. We are slowly changing hearts and minds here by starting a seed exchange of sorts with some of my friends locally who also are committed to more biodiversity and eating healthy not “dead” food. What’s more these same friends now come to me to ask about gardening so I pass on what I know into a hopefully every growing network of gardeners whose goal is not only to feed themselves but to preserve what we have.
To be frank it terrifies me to think that so much of our food source is patented and in the hands of the very few. I remember how there were shortages of grain when I was a teen because of using engineered seeds which didn’t have the diversity to withstand disease and so the crops were low producing or failing outright. This is another reason to preserve our cultural and bio-diverse seed resources.
Love the flavor of heirlooms and also that I can save seeds that are exactly suited to my gardens. And they are so beautiful. I find them to be resilient in my all organic gardens. Why would I want seeds that have been tampered with?
When I visit my grandchildren and serve them fruits and vegetables from the grocery store it makes me feel so sad. Sad that they don’t get to taste and smell the delicious varieties that my mother and grandmother served me. Without the efforts of folks like the Gettles these beautiful and nutritious heirloom varieties would be lost. My thanks to them for all their work and dedication. I look forward to growing and sharing ‘old fashioned’ food with my dear family members. A grandmother’s gift.
I love and enjoy the diversity of Heirlooms, we need to keep growing and propagating these seeds to maintain variety in our food sources. We need to protect against limiting our fruit and vegetable varieties in the event of there possible demise if threatened by blight, disease, GMOs etc.
I am actively interested in learning, and making many healthy changes in how my family eats, lives on our land and planet. Newly acquired access to the internet and Facebook has opened up a new world of info and ideas to me, and Baker Creekl
I am so excited to be planting heirloom seeds. I grew up with a garden my grandparents and parents grew. The quality of the food was incredible. I can’t wait to grow food that will still have all the nutritional value food used to have and to pass that on to my daughters. Oh and the taste is incomparable!!
I became interested in heirloom vegetables in the 1980’s, but did very little gardening due to dental school, establishing a practice, having children, raising children: life got in the way! I recently remembered having an heirloom seed catalog, which was illustrated with pen and ink drawings. So I began searching for that company on the internet….didn’t remember their name and never did find them. Instead I discovered many new companies with exciting offerings. I have fallen in love with the many Hungarian pepper plants. Now we can have the real Szegedi and Kalocsai paprika that my Hungarian mother reminisces about. Paprika is a Hungarian’s passion!
I love the natural variety that heirloom gardening provides. I believe too that it is a link to our past, if we forget our past we jeopardize our future. I love the fun and interesting fruits and veggies that are available through heirloom and organic seeds. It makes me excited to garden and experiment with growing different things.
Heirloom seeds are more flavorful because they evoke a link to ancestors with each bite.
I cannot think of a reason not to buy heirloom seeds. From taste, to heritage, to diversity, to ownership, to responsibility, to discipline, to practice, to sheer fascination, I am so thrilled to be trying my own Manhattan terrace garden from seeds this season. I ordered about 30 packets (I know, I know…I should have eased my way in….) from Baker Creek in January and I’m already off to a great start. Cheers!
I want healthy food….veggies. not ones that are genetically modified. And I also want to be able to save seeds for the following years, to share with friends and for growing more safe and healthy food.
Heirlooms are living history. I find it amazing to be planting seeds that were planted my great-great-great grandparents. I also don’t trust GMOs and the companies that are peddling them on us.
I really feel it is important to preserve heirloom seeds for our childrens future. I grew up gardening and didn’t really understand what heirloom was or meant. I want to make sure my children understand the importance of growing pure heirloom seeds. I hope that they will learn to love gardening and growing the food we eat just as much as I do.
I’ve only been gardening for a few years, but I’m learning more and more everyday, and am looking everywhere for heirloom seeds and gardening books. I love the taste and look of heirloom vegetables, and think it’s very important to save these wonderful seeds for all future generations.
Looking for the rare and unusual like romanesco broccoli. I was 35 before I knew carrots came in purple. My grandparents knew better and so will I.
Heirlooms = real food. Real food = true health. Eating nutrient-rich foods, at their maximum capacity for vitamins and minerals, is a decision that says you care about yourself, you love yourself, you value the only body and mind you will ever know, in this lifetime.
I love heirloom seeds. I tell everyone who plants some sort of garden about them. So much better tasting and I always have good luck with them. They grow so well. And I’m all about supporting the smaller companies. Don’t want the big companies, like monsanto, to dictate what we can grow and when. Dangerous to have a few companies in control of the seed supply. Control the food, control the people. It’s so nice to be self-sufficient and save and grow your own seeds
Heritage seeds to me mean that we have something to share for generations. The way that veggies were supposed to taste and not like the ones that are in the grocery stores now. There are so many illnesses and people that cannot eat the foods that are made today that it’s time to “get back to basics” and eat and grow the way we were intended.
I think that it is important to preserve our culinary heritage, and I also like just growing different things. My father in law is really surprised and confused by a lot of our plants this season because they are all heritage varieties. I am actually growing the purple pole beans pictured!
In the midst of the financial oddities of our country today, my brother is hoarding gold and silver, and I and my wife are hoarding seeds. Not out of fear, but because we recognize that open-pollinated seeds are a source of great stability for us. Shelter, water, and food are really, at the core all we need and being able to grow one’s own food, save the seeds and grow again the next year is integral to a healthy and spiritually-fulfilled life. It also helps to teach our children that through hard work, perseverance, and care of living things our needs are met. That’s why we farm, and that’s why we choose open-pollinated seeds to grow.
The flavor of heirloom tomatoes is beyond compare.
For genetic preservation! For my children’s and grandchildren’s future. For our health, for the sake of diversity, and to practice our human right of growing our own food and saving our own seeds.
I love heirloom seeds because they produce the tastiest fruits and veggies. Besides I like knowing that I’m eating the same varieties my grandmother would have eaten.
I’ve been following Bakercreek since they first got started and would love to win a autographed copy!!! I just believe in preserving pure food! I’m a fan of both sites now!
Diversity is so very important for healthy food and healthy people!
I love heirloom seeds and veggies because they are not the same old thing. They are beautiful and unique and yummy. Due to more GMO foods being grown in this country, I feel it is more important now than every before to have these veggies growing in your garden to have seeds for future gardens and if I fail, at least Baker Creek will sell me more seeds to try again.
I hadn’t really thought about why Heirloom seeds are worth preserving (other than reading it’s a good idea) but now that I’m thinking about it- Biodiversity comes to mind. Our present monocropping conventional agricultural ways should tell us that growing the same type of the same thing over and over yeilds diminishing returns and food that just….well…tastes like cardboard. I love the taste, texture and look of the heirloom varieties I’ve tried to grow. It’s a delight to more senses than just the tastebuds to grow this type of food.
It is truly not a cliche to say that food grown at home tastes better and is more nutritious, and when you grow heirlooms, that statement is exponentially more true. I moved 5 years ago to the mountains of West Virginia, and when I decided to grow a garden for the first time, some old-timers shared some of their seed with me – a mortgage lifter tomato and an old-fashioned pole bean (at least 160 years old). I was blown away at the difference in taste. It got me thinking of how, without these old-timers, without young people taking an interest in the preservation of these wonderful foods, and without people like the Gettles, our food will be so standardized and robbed of flavor and nutrition, more than it already is. If we can allow nature to do her work, and be willing to get a little dirt on our hands, we wouldn’t need factories and laboratories to feed our families and our country. I will forever be an organic home producer for my family, as long as I am able – and Baker Creek helps me do that. I have now shared those bean seeds with several of my own friends, all of whom have had the same reaction as me. That’s the other beauty of growing these, it’s about community, sharing, the well being of others and our society. The Gettles work is a blessing to our society, and I thank you for seeing the need for such diversity and purity in the things we eat, and for sharing it with us. God Bless!
All these heartfelt and well-considered comments are terrific. Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts on why it’s important to maintain our nation’s food heritage by planting heirloom, open-pollinated, non-GMO seeds. Keep these comments coming — we love reading everyone’s opinions. Teresa
I think it is very important to preserve seeds for are kids and are grandkids when you prepare a recipe that was your grandmothers or great grandmothers it is important to be able to have and use to same things they used or it will never be the same.
There are many reasons I like heirloom vegetables. One is that I worry about the integrity of non-heirloom vegetables, the ones that are bred to resist certain things – ones that are genetically modified – these scare me, as I learn more and more about the effects of spliced genes into our food source that could adversely affect our health. Another is that I want the opportunity to save my own seeds, and hybrid seeds may not breed true. And finally, I love the idea of planting, growing, and eating something that my grandparents, and my great-grandparents, etc. have planted, grown and eaten, and it gives me a wonderful connection to my past.
Growing your own food, and saving seeds for the next year,gives you a feeling of control over the foods you feed your family.
Heirloom foods have so much more of a flavor than the agracon stuff.
And, if things go to h e double hockey sticks, I`ll still be able to grow food.
“75% of agriculture’s genetic diversity has disappeared” just in the past 100 years! That’s why I support heirloom gardening. I don’t want to lose all these amazing varieties and tastes!
I believe it is important to preserve the heirloom seeds for their taste and because I think that they are a purer breed of seeds. GMO seeds don’t seem to have the richness of heirloom plants and the taste sure isn’t there. I also like the idea of supporting a company that may have been pasted down from generation to generation because I am a true believer in tradition.
I know I can not enter the competition, but I just wanted to show my support from one ‘Grower’ to another.
Here at Potsmith we are always looking for new ways to entice people into Grow Your Own.
<3 Good luck to everyone that enters! <3
I like Heirlooms because they taste wonderful and there is so much more variety than what is available at the grocery store.
I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m thinking more about the important issues–my (and others’) physical health and abilities to garden and put food on the table. With the economy as it is, it’s important to provide as much nutrition as possible as efficiently as possible. That doesn’t mean buying unripe produce or highly processed food from the grocery store. The heirloom seeds will provide more nutrition for the dollar(s) plus there’s a certain amount of pleasure and stress relief from the act of gardening and getting out in the fresh air. I’d especially like to try some of those purple beans (shown above). It seems to me that they would be easier to find on the green plants since my eyesight ain’t what it used to be, and besides that, they’re just plain pretty. Put a bunch of these beautiful and edible plants in a raised bed, and there’s something great for a person to just look at, then eventually eat. I need lots of color in the garden, and an edible garden will just fill the bill. Money savings. Stress relief. Feeling of achievement. Conversation piece. Saving heirloom seeds. Enjoying life. It’s an all-around win situation.
KrisO
I think heirloom gardening is important on so many levels:
biodiversity
growing your own veggies from seed, true to type
preserving our history
love the variety of veggies from all over the world
How I would love to read the history in this book, cannot wait!!!
Being a genealogist and a gardener I understand the importance of preservation of heirlooms, whether they be seeds used since Colonial times, hand tools from the Revolutionary era or Grandpa’s farm account ledger from the Great Depression.
While researching my husband’s Irish ancestry and the Potato Famine, I learned how important diversity is, not only in one’s diet, but also in the plant source. But it’s our mutual Scottish heritage that gloms on to the frugal side of saving money by saving seeds. Participating in seed exchanges with local farmers will help build up the best for our locality and our homestead. Thank you for making heirloom seeds available.
There is no better satisfaction than gardening.. period. But gardening organic and using the seeds you collected from your garden the year before takes the cake!
I am member of my local Slow Food group, Community Garden, a supporter of Seed Exchange and Ark of Taste. Preserving these rare and beautiful foods is a duty. And besides it tastes great!
It is the small gardeners through out history and their love that brings us these wonderful
variety options… just wish I could grow them all!
…. plant hope, grow love.
Yes, yes, yes…all of these and more! I cannot think of much that is more exciting than pouring through a catalog of quality heirloom seeds and gazing at the colors, patterns, shapes…reading the history/descriptions. And then to think about watching them grow and EATING them?? But more than anything, to me, is the sense of connectedness that these offer to all of us (with) our history, our heritage, our ancestral place – regardless of what/where these may be. In a modern world that seems ever-more rootless…these give us a sense of being rooted to all life?!
Great giveaway! To me it’s all about food diversity and saving our heritage seeds.
I love heirlooms because they have flavors that you just can’t find in the grocery store and our planet needs the benefits of biodiversity. I get so much joy out of my small backyard organic edible garden…I want what I grow, eat and share to be healthy, flavorful and sustainable. Thank you for this opportunity…the book looks amazing!
Growing heirlooms is like using your grandmother’s lace tablecloth or your Dad’s old clock. It’s cherishing your past and then passing it along to your children and grandchildren. Another plus: the heirloom vegetables taste better!
I love heirloom varieties of produce, because I believe they are the keys to our sustained food security and serve as the healthy and safe way to ensure availability of a healthy variety of produce for generations to come.
Heirloom seeds are naturally derived, GMO seeds are not. I’m a “rookie” gardner but I have to say that I have discovered the diversity between heirlooms and GMO. Heirloom is the only way to go. Thank You for being a great company and standing for something pure. I am a customer for life.
I grow heirlooms (along with some hybrids) for the uniqueness, and because I love the history of the heirlooms. They are the “antiques” of gardening, and I love antiques. I also save seed from heirlooms or any OP plants.
I love both the flavor and the history of heirloom fruits, veggies, and flowers.
I also like the pure genes they provide that lets us try to make our own plants “better.” My great-grandfather bred a geranium that did better in cooler climates (“Pride of Camden”) and my grandfather had quite a few odd shaped veggies in his garden every year but usually only ‘played around’ to see what he could do.
After skipping a generation I’m getting back to the garden- both with heirloom seeds and cross-pollinating to see what can be made… and my 10-year old son is right next to me keeping notes (on my phone) and taking pictures (on my phone) and even trying to get his friends involved (by texting them from my phone). Every now and then I get the phone long enough to talk on it, but that’s a different story.
After ordering from Baker Creek for several years now, I look forward to reading Jere and Emilee’s book, even if I have to buy my own copy!
I think heirloom varieties are so important in order to ensure genetic diversity and keep historical, nutritionally complex varieties available.
I love Heirloom seeds from Baker Creek. I enjoy looking through the catalog and planning what I will grow this season. This year I will have my own green house so I am extra excited. I am so excited to share this with my kids they “like” their veggies…
I think heirloom seeds are probably one of the most important things in the world right now. GMO seeds have the potential to ruin the worlds food source. The only way to keep this from happening is to promote heirloom seeds by educating home gardeners.
I adore heirloom foods- for their flavor, for their beauty, and for the glimpse back in time that they allow us… before everything was commercialized and made to look uniform. They are a hugely important part of our food culture! (and is anything more incredible than an heirloom tomato caprese salad?)
Much better flavor, crop diversity, ( sometimes) better pest resistance, supports small business and no GMO. What could be better for me, my family and the planet?
I have always loved heirlooms for their beauty. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I fully grasped what they meant and how they need to be championed. As a purveyor of the beautiful and unusual, it was a natural transition from being an organic gardener to an organic heirloom gardener. But most importantly, it is for my 2 year old daughter. Through the beauty and excitement of eating the gifts from our garden have I started a lifetime of connection with our food, an understanding of where it comes from and the fun of saving seeds and watching things grow! I hope she grows up like Jere and does something amazing with her appreciation too. She already prefers fresh broccoli from the garden to cookies so I think we may be on the right track! 😉 I would love this book, it sounds like a wealth of information on something very near and dear to my heart.
I feel that the preservation and continuation of heirloom food seeds is crucial to our existance. By growing and saving these open-pollinated seeds, we are contributing to preserving pure, genetic biodiversity and garden heritage.
I am very thankful for companies and organizations that provide an opportunity to access heirloom seeds, so that we can sustain a good & healthy food supply for present & future generations.
Heirloom plants are absolutely the foundation for and the base from which all of our current palette of plants are grown for food. They’re important for that reason alone, so we must keep them safe and alive!
and put at least some of them into your rotations!
They’re also a glimpse into our past and they taste so good! So, wake up, dear gardeners
Why do I care about heirloom seeds? I could sum it up in one word ~ Monsanto ~ because that company is responsible for destroying the heritage and integrity of native foods on this planet. I believe there will be a time in the (near) future when the true liabilities they have created by altering plant genes will come to light, and the world food supply will depend on finding sources of non-GMO seeds. Besides that, they just taste better!
Genetic diversity! And they are so beautiful and nutritious!
I love the heirloom food varieties. I like to think this was the kind that my great grandparents planted or ate. I would like the children of today to see how these played a big part in the food we have now.
Protecting the integrity of the world’s food supply by supporting our seed heritage is one of the most important ways we can empower ourselves and fight what may seem an insurmountable battle against corporate giants bent on sacrificing sustainability for wealth.
Such a small thing, to plant and save a seed. Such a great thing, to grow a movement…
Delicious snap peas that burst with flavor in your mouth? Amazing paste tomatoes that make the best marinara sauce? Ugly winter squash that keeps for 6 months and just gets sweeter until you finally bake it for desert? Thick, juicy flesh from a melon so aromatic the scent fills the whole house? None of these are available at the supermarket, and I want future generations to continue to enjoy all of these and more!
There is too much altering of the food we eat by genetic manipulation. The heirloom varieties must be preserved to continue the availability of truly pure, healthy and better tasting vegetables. I have sold Baker Creek Seeds at our Garden Center and love to support companies that help us maintain a better way eating and keeping these opportunities available for future generations! Way to go Jere Gettle!
It’s vitally important to keep diversity in an ever increasing monoculture world. Variety is the spice of life, they say.
Wow! Thanks to the 200+ gardeners who took the time to enter this giveaway and share their reasons why they love heirloom seeds and heritage foods. Your stories were wonderful. Your rationale made lots of sense. And your passion for good, healthy food was inspiring. May you all eat well this summer from your gardens and local farmers.
Meanwhile, congratulations to Kathryn of Raleigh, North Carolina for winning this giveaway. Stay tuned for another great gardening giveaway next week!
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