Heirlooms

[Guest guest]

By choosing heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables, you can add

character to your cooking and longevity to the planet.

 

By Dayna Macy

 

In a traditional Indian pueblo garden in New Mexico in 1985,

filmmaker Kenny Ausubel focused his camera on a man clutching a

fistful of seeds. The man opened his hands to reveal beautiful red

corn kernels. As he began to speak, he also began to weep. He told

the story of finding a small pot filled with the seeds inside the mud

wall of his adobe home. Not knowing what they were, he took them

around the pueblo, asking if anyone could identify them. No one

could, until two elders spoke up and explained that they were the

sacred red corn of San Juan Pueblo, which hadn't been grown in more

than 40 years. Had the man not discovered the seeds, this variety of

corn might have been lost forever, says Ausubel, who went on to found

the Bioneers Conference, a gathering of environmentalists whose aim

is to restore the earth.

 

Seeds like the red corn are called " heirlooms " —old varieties of

fruit, vegetable, herb, and flower seeds that, in the words of Kent

Whealy, cofounder of Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, " are

passed down in families the way jewelry or furniture are. " In

Whealy's collection, for instance, he has a bean that was brought

over on the Mayflower, seeds that General Robert E. Lee's wife gave

to Lee during the Civil War, and even seeds for a variety of lettuce

that Thomas Jefferson grew at his home, Monticello.

 

But the preservation of heirloom seeds is more than just an exercise

in nostalgia. Buying these seeds and planting them, or choosing to

purchase heirloom produce, is vital to the health of our environment,

to the preservation of biodiversity, and as a hedge against famine.

Preserving heirlooms might even be thought of as a spiritual practice—

an opportunity to act on our good intentions for the world that

nurtures and sustains us.

 

" You can't save our environment or genetic diversity unless you save

the foundations that created it in the first place, " says Bill

McDorman, founder of Seeds Trust, an organization committed to

preserving and disseminating heirloom seeds. " And what makes our

environment diverse and sustainable are seeds. "

 

The Picture of Imperfection

 

Heirloom seeds are nonhybrids, which means that they self-reproduce

and that the seeds of the offspring remain genetically true to the

parent. Most of the produce available at major supermarkets is

instead hybrid—the result of crossbreeding two different varieties to

reinforce particular traits. Hybrids are bred for greater crop yield

and to still look perfect while withstanding handling, packaging, and

shipping.

 

Heirlooms, on the other hand, might display imperfections; tomatoes,

for instance, can come in odd colors and lumpy shapes, sometimes with

scars on their skin. But there's a reward for looking past the

surface—taste. Heirlooms often offer more intense flavors than many

of their crossbred counterparts. Varieties of lettuce and greens with

names like Black Simpson, Magenta Spreen Lambsquarters, and Formidana

delight the tongue with unusual sensations: mineral flavors, citrusy

aromas, intriguing textures. They're a far cry from the watery crunch

of iceberg.

 

But heirlooms are superior to hybrids in other ways too. Planting

heirlooms that are regionally specific and well suited to their local

environment means they can be grown with fewer herbicides and

pesticides than genetically uniform hybrids.

 

Also, the self-propagating nature of heirlooms—as opposed to hybrids,

which don't always reproduce on their own—ensures the integrity and

diversity of seed stocks. This is crucial to preserving biodiversity—

nature's safeguard against famine. When American agribusinesses plant

enormous swaths of land with hybrid seeds, they create a single

uniform crop. It is precisely this uniformity that makes crops

susceptible to blight—and that could ultimately jeopardize our food

supply. If we become dependent on a single strain of hybrid and that

crop fails, we have no backup.

 

Put bluntly, we need a variety of self-propagating seeds to ensure

our ongoing survival. " The world's food system is treacherously

perched on a rapidly eroding genetic base, " says Ausubel, who is also

cofounder of Seeds of Change, a company that sells heirloom

seeds. " We can't afford to lose these traditional seed stocks—our

genetic legacy and our fail-safe against extinction. "

 

The Natural Way

 

some of our most widely consumed crops—soybeans and corn, for example—

are now largely being grown from genetically modified (GM) seeds. GM

seeds are heavily promoted by their creators, in part because they

can be patented and therefore can generate significant profits for

the companies that produce them.

 

While biotech proponents say that foods from GM crops are well tested

and safe, Arpad Pusztai, formerly a research scientist at the Rowett

Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, says there are surprisingly

few scientific, peer-reviewed studies about their impact on the

health and safety of humans. Even animal studies are rare. In other

words, no one knows what long-term effects GM foods will have on us

or on the environment.

 

Planting heirloom seeds is therefore a pragmatic way to preserve and

protect our own health and the health of the planet, which are

inextricably linked. It's also a soulful way to show our respect for

both our past and our future. Many indigenous people, Ausubel

explains, believe that seeds speak the voices of our ancestors, and

that in planting them we become the ancestral voice of the

future. " It's a very powerful transmission, spiritually and

culturally—a gift that each generation gives to the next, " he

says. " To respect and sustain life in all of its diversity is at

heart a spiritual practice. There is nothing more profound than

that. "

 

Dayna Macy is YJ's communications director.

 

Enjoy

Val