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. Today, seed companies and seed savers offer literally hundreds of heirlooms. Some are standard varieties that have never been superseded. Others were popular once, but disappeared from the seed trade. Many of these would have been lost, but seed-saving gardeners kept them alive.