Thankfully there are people that have been saving these seeds for all of us to grow. One's mouth would water over Long Island peaches when they came into season. And the first peas, corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers were eagerly eaten before they got to the kitchen. Now much of our produce has been bred to resist travel, disease, insects, and now herbicides. In that genetic conversion to mass production, taste has been lost.
Gardening requires trial and error.
Some plants like more sun than others, wet feet or soil high in nutrients. Some species can't thrive in the northern states where spring and fall evenings become quite cool or seasons are short. Years ago we removed many of the native species that did do well in our neighborhoods. Now, we have to rediscover which plants we can grow successfully in our own gardens. The more seeds we have to choose from the more likely we will find ones that we can grow in our environment.