During my visit Jan pointed out many plants—carrots, some lettuce plants, and three different kinds of chives—that were going to seed. As she said, “In the era this garden represents, there were, of course, few seed companies or produce markets. People were dependent upon the garden, and at any given time during the growing season there would be seedlings filling in, produce ready for harvesting, and seed heads forming for next year’s seeds. These seed heads are a bonus; in addition to producing seeds, the extra heads can be used in all their different stages. Fresh carrot blossoms are long-lived, white, and lacy—excellent for flower arrangements and attracting beneficial insects.” She noted that other seed heads used for arrangements include those of orach, bread-seed poppies, chives, elephant garlic, and leeks. “Sometimes,” Jan concluded, “our modern gardens can seem sterile and one-dimensional in comparison.”
Jan explained that not just heirloom vegetable varieties but also old, open-pollinated flower varieties, are endangered. In Jan’s garden old varieties of red dianthus surrounded the ruby chard, and the hollyhocks were in bloom—the graceful single white ones called ‘Tomb of Jesus’—as was another old-timer, ‘Love-Lies-Bleeding’ amaranth, with its long, “pink chenille” tassels. The flowers softened the look of the vegetable beds and, to the untrained eye, made them appear to be part of a lovely front-yard cottage garden.
interview
Kent Whealy
Kent Whealy is director of the Seed Savers Exchange, an organization devoted to saving endangered open-pollinated varieties of vegetables. More than 1,000 members offer heirloom vegetable seeds through Seed Savers publications and help keep alive a gene pool of such unusual vegetables as ‘Montezuma Red’ beans and ‘Afghani Purple’ carrots. Seed Savers operates Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa, which maintains more than 18,000 varieties of heirloom vegetables. Kent, who has a degree in journalism, has compiled the Garden Seed Inventory (now in its fifth edition), a book listing and describing nearly 6,000 open-pollinated vegetable varieties sold by 240 companies in North America.
When I asked Kent to share some of his experiences with heirlooms, he first told me about the ‘Moon and Stars’ watermelon. This intriguing pink-fleshed watermelon is similar to many dark green ones but is covered with many small yellow spots, or “stars” and usually a large yellow spot, or “moon,” which can be as large as four inches wide. Kent said that exchange members had tried for about five years to find the ‘Moon and Stars’ watermelon through their network. Then in 1981, “we were living in Missouri and I did a television spot about the Seed Savers. After it aired, I got a call from Merle Van Doran, who told me he had ‘Moon and Stars’ and asked if I wanted some seed. I went to his farm, by chance only fifty miles away, and he had a whole field of the melons.”
Kent talked, too, about the ‘Cherokee’ bean. Not all our heirloom varieties came from Europe, Africa, or Asia; many are native. According to Kent, “there was an old fellow, recently deceased, named Dr. John Wyche, a dentist of Cherokee descent from Hugo, Oklahoma. Dr. Wyche’s people had traveled on the Trail of Tears, an Indian death march [the forced relocation of the Cherokees from their native lands in the southeastern states to Oklahoma], in 1838. He gave me several varieties of seeds that his people had carried [on the march; one we call the ‘Cherokee’ bean or the ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’ bean, which is a snap bean. The seeds are black, and the pods are very long and purple and grow on vigorous climbing vines.”
Then there’s the tomato called ‘Stump of the World.’ Kent thinks that of the 510 varieties of tomatoes he has grown, this is one of the best. It’s a large, meaty, pink tomato that’s incredibly flavorful. Kent doesn’t know where the name came from, only that the seeds came from the late Ben Quisenberry, who ran a company called Big Tomato Gardens, which offered tomato seeds for thirty years.
Kent Whealy is the director of the Seed Saver’s Exchange, an organization of seed savers devoted to saving an endangered vegetable gene pool.
Kent also mentioned an especially sweet white corn. “It’s so sweet,” he said, “you can’t dry it for seed on the plant, or it will mold. It’s called ‘Aunt Mary’s’ sweet corn.” According to Kent, a fellow named Berkowitz visited his aunt Mary in Ohio in the 1930s, became enamored with her corn, and obtained some seeds from her. Two of Berkowitz’s friends, W. W. Williams and his father, helped him produce the seeds. Forty years later Williams gave the seeds to Kent. As Kent said, “When someone like Williams gives me the seeds of something he’s kept pure for forty years, I feel it’s a gift from the past and I have an obligation to keep it going.”
The ‘Old Time Tennessee’ muskmelon is another heirloom that Kent likes. He said it grows larger than a basketball and is unusual because, instead of being smooth, the rind has very deep creases. The way it grows is amazing: at first, it’s very long and creased, like a deflated football; then, as it grows, it balloons and fills out.
‘Grandpa Ott’s’ morning glories bedeck the side of the Seed Savers barn. The teepees are covered with heirloom bean varieties.
Anyone interested in joining Kent and other seed savers can send for a free color catalog detailing the projects and publications of the Seed Savers Exchange (see Resources, page 102). Realize, though, that you are not merely sending for a seed catalog. The Seed Savers Yearbook offers 11,000 heirloom varieties. As a member, you have access to this incredible collection of wonderful vegetables and fruits that are not commercially available—but that’s simply a benefit of what Kent refers to as “saving the sparks of life that feed us all.”
The garden at the Seed Savers in Decorah, Iowa is filled with hundreds of open-pollinated varieties of vegetables. Different selections are grown out each year and the seeds cataloged and saved. The many ‘cages’ are to protect the different vegetables from cross-pollination by bees, thus contaminating the gene pool.
A harvest from the Seed Savers garden includes corn, pole snap beans, and old-fashioned green-shouldered tomatoes.
an encyclopedia of heirloom vegetables
The following entries describe how to grow and prepare heirloom vegetables, the majority of which have been in cultivation at least one hundred years. In the cooking sections, I have concentrated on Native American cooking methods and those used during Colonial times and the early nineteen century. See Appendices A and B (pages 90-101) for information on soil preparation, mulching, composting, and pests and diseases.
Whenever possible, the year that the variety was introduced to this country is given. Most of the varieties are either European or Native American heirlooms, as it was these cultures that had the most influence on early American gardening and cooking. For detailed information on the historical background of heirloom varieties, see William Woys Weaver’s magnificent book, Heirloom Vegetable Gardening. For more information on the varieties, including nursery sources, consult Sue Stickland’s Heirloom Vegetables.
When you buy or trade heirloom seeds be aware that over the years the same variety may have been spelled in a number or ways or may have been renamed altogether (often by seed companies who want it to look like they have a new variety).