Gardening with heirloom seeds will add tasty and nutritious variety to your family’s diet because before industrial agriculture, people grew a much wider assortment of plant food.

Diversity augments the interest, charm and flavor of food. The array of heirloom seed selection is amazing! There are so many different kinds of tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash and zucchini to name of few of my favorites, that are not found in the produce section of your local grocery store, and best of all they have not been genetically altered.

Now I realized that many gardeners want their food to look like the perfect creations we buy from our local grocer. The size and color is familiar and rarely are there surprises in the taste. If that is your position, or you think your family would rebel in protest then you probably would be more satisfied sticking with genetically modified hybrid seeds produced from a “secret recipe” just like a KFC bucket or box dinner. Or, maybe try mixing it up a bit by planting some heirloom seeds in addition to your tried and true familiar and see what happens? At my house the younger one display’s verbal delights in the unusual shapes and colors of the veggies from Mom’s heirloom garden but at dinner time is not in a hurry to sample my efforts. Whereas the teenager is less vocal, “Huh, weird looking.” [scarf’s] “Huh, good.” And so it goes…

Another gardening consideration is disease. Since heirloom seeds are not genetically modified and are open-pollinated by Mr. Bee, the same seed type is not exact, or identical. They are from the same family but each has different characteristics just like you, your kids and their cousins. Therefore, if a plant from heirloom seed becomes diseased, there is a good chance that not all the plants of that seed type will become diseased because of the varying attributes of individuality. Whereas, hybrid seeds are twins, or clones if you will, so if one becomes diseased all of them will since they are identical they will all have the same lack of resistance.

There are many seed companies that focus on heirlooms, including Baker Creek and Fedco. You could also contact seed exchange groups or The Seed Savers Exchange which is a non-profit organization that assists gardeners wanting to buy or trade heirloom seed. Choose something you normally grow and compare it with your tried and true familiar. Or, pick something different and unusual. If anything you might get a “wow” factor from your family. But beware of imposters trying to cash in on heirlooms evocative image as heirloom seeds are not normally sold commercially.