For a dependable, diverse, time-tested selection of temperate zone garden vegetables, fruit fiber, medicinal, culinary and flower plants, heirlooms are our legacy for survival and sustainability. Generally, heirlooms are plant varieties that have been saved by gardeners for at least 3 generations. To preserve the genetic integrity of seeds and plants that have taken millennia to select and that have passed through diverse cultures and ecologies, heirlooms have been cherished by people and passed on from hand to hand, through famines, weather disasters and human folly. They are part of the public domain. Open pollinated seeds that breed true and can be saved by the grower.
Seed saving completes the biological cycle that promotes food security.
Heirlooms breed true, dependably give rise to productive plants and are the foundation of a healthy and sustainable food system. Selected for success, heirloom seeds give rise to vigorous, healthy and productive plants. Gardeners face the trials of erratic weather, unreliability of water supplies, predation and the unexpected. The best heirlooms are the survivors that were successful during difficult times, tested by life and death, sustaining us when it was essential. In Siberia, there are millions of gardeners, most of whom are seed savers since there are no companies to supply seeds and gardening is the only insurance against famine and starvation.