Heirlooms are living artifacts. Popular in living history exhibits, these old-time varieties offer a glimpse of life in earlier times. Heirlooms are also a reservoir of genetic diversity. Traits encoded in their DNA may someday prove critical to feeding the world. And there is more.
Heirlooms invite passion.
There is just something about all their wonderful shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors that sparks a sense of wonder. Take heirloom tomatoes, for example. While tomatoes may be the most popular heirloom, many other vegetables are just as diverse. Peppers come in all kinds of colors, sizes, and shapes. So do corn, beans, kale, eggplant, squash, lettuce, potatoes, and nearly all the other crops.