Heritage vs Heirloom: Terms of Confusion

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market.  This week we have some follow-up photography and some horticultural information to cover but before we get into that something does need a clarification. At the last two Sustainable Neighbors meetings we got to discussing what the difference between a ‘Heritage’ plant and a ‘Heirloom’ plant is and the nature of ‘gmo-free’ and organic labelling on plants and food. Let me start with the latter as it is a much more simplistic explanation. When you buy food at the store and it says Organic on it, this does not necessarily mean it is GMO-free. Depending on which set of guidelines the producer is using, the food could be GMO crops that are raised under a set of organic guidelines that make no effective mention of excluding GMO plants. Likewise, if it says GMO-Free this does not inherently mean that the food you are looking at was raised under organic standards. Your best bet is to buy products with both GMO-Free and Organic on the label but make sure to scrutinize what the company making the product’s means and methods are. Only you can make those final informed decisions that can bit by bit alter larger spending practices and halt the proliferation of things you don’t want to see on the shelves at the market.

Now the terms Heritage and Heirloom when it comes to plants and seed are tricky. This fact is unfortunately intentional because less-scrupulous agribusiness knows that you may not know what the terms mean and they know they can charge more for stuff with that term on it. Typically, an Heirloom variety originates from open-pollinated plants that have been around for a while. The amount of time needed to declare a plant variety Heirloom is the subject of debate, but I tend to stick the limitation that the variety would had have to originated at least a hundred years ago (1919-ish) or older. The term Heirloom only refers to the originating date of the variety and its genetic heritage, but not it’s growing standard. The term Heirloom does not at all guarantee that the plants or seed were grown organically; so, you should check those labels to make sure. A famous example of an heirloom variety is ‘Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter’ tomato, which is often shortened to ‘Mortgage Lifter’. This tomato was bred around 1922, and was bred by William Estler of Barboursville in West Virginia. He had no actual horticultural training and got the nickname Radiator Charlie because he worked on early automobiles. His breed of tomato allowed him to buy out his own mortgage during the Great Depression. The Variety would also save many small nursery businesses from bankruptcy as the plant was prolific and highly saleable. Indirectly the tomato may have saved many from malnutrition and starvation.

Abelmoschus esculentus 'Red Burgundy' - Red burgundy Okra

Gossypium hirsutum 'Mississippi Brown' Cotton

The same cotton boll as above (clockwise from lower left) separated into, lint, Locule (3), Barb/bract (center top) and, seeds (lower right darker brown things). Missippi brown is also a heritage variety. [Pre-1860. Once grown by slaves, this seed came from a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi via seed saver John Coykendall.]

The term Heritage in terms of plants is at its simplest merely denoting a variety is very old, often pre-1900’s. More often then not Heritage varieties have some history and culture attached to them which means they have a story to tell which can be compelling or shed light on a period of time that some want to forget. A good example of heritage varieties is Nankeen Cotton, Red Burgundy Okra, Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad tomato. All three varieties are considered African-American Heritage plants because they had a meaningful historical place during slavery.  During slavery, in all but South Carolina slaves were allowed to grow some of their own food, there was a catch though. The varieties of plants they grew due to color were considered unfit for use by the plantation and possibly unfit for human consumption. Remember, slaves were not considered full people at the time, the math on that changes from source to source but it’s usually 3/5^th of a person. So, the colored lint cottons were cultivated by slaves for their own use in clothing and Red Burgundy okra was cultivated by them for food along with the precursor for Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad Tomato…except in South Carolina. Nankeen cotton also played a role in the Civil war via a nankeen cotton shirt with a specific set of braids indicating to confederate forces where the Union troops were moving. Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad as we know it today got its name because it was carried to the north by runaway slaves on the actual underground railroad and it became tied to abolition as a result. With all that said, the reason those three varieties of plant are Heritage varieties is because they are all directly and indirectly tied to part of American history that some would happily white wash or have us forget. They all pre-date 1900, their place in history can be absolutely verified which solidifies their status as Heritage varieties.

 

Storm Damage, this was after some cleanup.

 

Anolis carolinensis - Green Anole Lizard

The critter cam strikes again, Green Anoles are a native lizard that eats a lot of bugs, although this one was more brown than green, these reptiles may or may not be able to alter their skin color to blend in. I've seen them in shades of yellow, brown, green and black, these differences may be due to pigment absorbed from insect's camouflage when they eat them.

Hyla cinera - Green Tree Frog

The same green tree frog as before, it apparently takes refuge in my spare recycling container during the day.

 Talk about adaptation to urban environments, this is one of several green tree frogs that live on the property, but this one is always near the driveway and tends to hangout in the fig bushes at night especially when it's rainy. I suspect it's taken to hiding in the recycling can because insects go in there and birds definitely cannot get in there.

 

Eupatorium coelestinum - Hardy Ageratum

I have this plant in numerous sections of the garden and it may still be in bloom for the tour, it is a native and the sky blue blooms late in summer if not in early fall are a sign of cool days to come. It can be weedy so  if you grow this treat it like a mint except without the heavy water requirements.

Helenium sp. - Sneezeweed

 Sneezeweed is a common late summer 'weed' that appears in dry sandy soils near roadsides and brightens a drab area with it's cheery yellow blooms that resemble Chamomile. You will find cultivated versions of it in nurseries where it's been bred to have blooms in a side range of reds oranges and of course yellows.

Lilium formosanum - Formosa Lily

Remember these? No? Well at the market this year I took a risk and offered a limited number of these lilies for sale and got a lukewarm response. The left overs were planted in the crescent bed and all of them bloomed, there is no telling what these little beauties will do next year, but I'm looking forward to it.

Before we move on to the bit where I talk about what I have available at the market and what garden goodies you can snag for your self at the market I would like to take a moment to talk about the Fall Garden Tour. This year I decided to return to an old tradition where I run a late garden tour in October so that those who missed the spring one get a second chance to see where the magic happens.  The fall tour is on October 20^th, 2019, between 2 and 5 pm and you can RSVP at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/events/265074204/

Yup that's my table at the market all right.

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Plants & Stuff Available Now:

Vegetables:

Collards, Green Glaze: 3” - $3.00

Mustard, Japanese Red Giant: 3” - $3.00

Kale, Scotch Blue Curled: 3” - $3.00

Herbs:

Rue, Marbled 3” - $3.00

Sage, Common 3”: - $3.00

Santolina, Etruscan: 5” - $6.00

Santolina, Etruscan: 3” - $3.00

Flowers:

Coneflower, Pow Wow White: 3” – $3.00

Coneflower ‘Green Twister’: 3” – $3.00

Coral Bells, ‘Marvelous Marble’ 4.5” - $5.00

Salvia, New Dimension Blue: 5” - $6.00

Houseplants & Annuals:

Polka-Dot Plants: 6” - $5.00

Coming Soon:

Sparkling Blue Kale

Dinosaur Kale

Cilantro/Coriander

Swiss Chard

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

                        This brings to a close the nineteenth LITFM post of the year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 4^th of October. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

The Terms of Agriculture

Welcome back to another slightly damp edition of Lost In the Farmer’s Market. The weather has our fine cotton weave all clingy with anticipation of the spring to be and the winter that is. With that said we would like to draw your attention to Exhibit A under the category of ‘kicking wet weather in the golf bag’.

The trench is only 9 inches wide at the top and about 4.5" wide at the bottom but theres two feet of depth at the bottom of which is a 4" slotted drainage pipe for 30 feet of the trench. In total there was 35 feet of trench, so on the end you see above there is a two foot end cap that is pure pea gravel.

The end you see above has a foot long end cap of  stone while on the remaining 7 feet switches from perforated to slotted drain pipe to  prevent clogging  at the end of the system.That’s right, after many months of planning the drain system is operational…I feel about as giddy as Emperor Palpatine was over the death star!

This was the drainage project some of you saw underway back in October at the time it was only a ten foot trench but as you can see it now extends about the back porch and incorporates a sloped cistern near the fence. Ok you can’t quite see the cistern as its all underground but it’s the large patch of gravel. The blocks laid atop the cistern are where the new cold frame will go after I give its wooden exterior parts a polyurethane treatment. But enough of that you’re here to see part two of the discussions started last week so without further ado let’s get to those terms.

Heritage

A heritage variety is essentially almost a synonym for heirloom, almost. A heritage variety can be a heirloom but a heirloom cannot necessarily be a heritage variety. Basically a heritage variety is an heirloom that has verified cultural history attached to it. So a plant say grown and promoted by Thomas Jefferson that is preserved over the decades and is still available would be a possible heritage variety. Likewise a specific variety grown by an entire people for a long period of history such as Kamut wheat grown by the Egyptians would definitely count.  

Heirloom

An heirloom variety is a given breed of plant that is passed on through the generations and may or may not have a clear lineage or record of its propagators. A case in point could be seen with the Brandywine or Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato breeds. Both have been kept in circulation for a long time and both are relatively close to their original parent material. The problem is that due to lax labeling laws genetically altered strains and similar such plants can be marked as heirloom when the alterations cause them to not perform as their natural cousins do. You should be wary of the source of anything marked Heirloom because much like the term organic the term has been abused by many an unscrupulous corporate entity*.

Open-Pollinated

Open pollinated is a good term though a bit unnecessary. All it means is that the pollination of a given plant was not controlled and nature was allowed to do what she does best…make with the natural unbiased plant sex! So for you this means there will be genetic variability in a given batch of seed which could mean little or if your very lucky the next new natural variety of something. The down side is that open-pollinated seed can be contaminated by GMO or hybrids if it is too close to a ‘dirty field’ if you get my meaning. Fortunately producers such as Baker’s Creek, southern exposure, high mowing and seed savers are rather aware of the risk and take precautions which means the use of large distance offsets to avoid foreign pollen issues. If there was a source of seed I’d suggest saving seed as a yearly practice its open-pollinated plants as you never quite know what the offspring will be like but it’s always a fun adventure.

The Fayetteville City/Farmer’s Market occurs every Saturday from 9:00 AM through 1:00 PM. The market is located at 325 Franklin Street in the parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation museum. Since we are a year-round operation you can expect there will be fresh foods available at the market and as always yours truly is always prepared with garden advice and great plants. Here is a list of what will be coming to the market this week.

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening

This is the second edition of my book, which was published using data compiled from several years of test garden operations. It’s written to aid gardeners of all skill levels in successful garden methods that are targeted for the south east but had proven to be a valued resource for gardens across the eastern coast. It’s certainly a good gift for that gardener you know or for yourself if you’d like to have a reliable field guide. The book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed.

Black Magic Fertilizer

That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer. This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00 per gallon of fertilizer. You can either order it at the market and pick it up the next week or have it delivered to your home in the Fayetteville area for a delivery charge of an additional $2.00.

Fresh Cut Herbs

Bundles of Fresh Rosemary, short stem ($1.00)

Bagged Lavender ($2.00)

Bagged Eucalyptus ($2.00)

House Plants

8x Holiday Cactus ($3.00)

Garden Plants

2x Morris-Heading Cabbage Collards 0.5 gal pot ($4.00)

2x Georgia Collards, 0.5 gal pot ($4.00)

Coming Soon:
Angelica - Perennial Herb, culinary.
Green Santolina - Perennial evergreen herb, aromatic.
Black Fennel - Perennial semi-evergreen herb, culinary.
Green Fennel - Perennial semi-evergreen herb, culinary.
Rosemary - Perennial evergreen herb, culinary.
Lovage - Perennial leaf green, culinary.
Bloody Dock - Perennial leaf green, ornamental or culinary.
Tansy - Perennial herb.
Lambs Ear - Perennial evergreen herb, medical.
Bristol Cross Oregano - Perennial Evergreen herb, culinary and ornamental.
Desert Privet - Houseplant.
Rotary Peperomia - Houseplant
Dancing Bones Cactus - Houseplant
Dwarf Pomegranate - Fruit bearing deciduous shrub, perennial.
Chicago Hardy Fig - Fruit Bearing deciduous shrub.
Mary Washington Asparagus - Decuous perennial vegetable.
Ozark Beauty Strawberry - Semi-evergreen perennial fruit bearing.

(The list above is just the beginning! Hold on to your hats folks because 2014 is going to be so permaculture heavy Monsanto might sue us for stealing their business!)

 So this concludes the Second LITFM Episode of February, I have to post a correction on some information from last week. First off after running about the test gardens with a pocket ruler and measuring snow depth, it indeed was an average of 2.5” deep. So that was 2.5” of snow that melted down to 0.5” of actual precipitation. More so this week we had two major precipitation events generating 0.3” and 0.5” amounts respectively. In short I’d say we’re all-good for spring if this keeps up. I hope to see some of you down at the market, and as always keep ‘em growing!

P.S.

*I mean you walmart…your on notice young mister! *Points at eyes and then points back at walmart* I am soooo watching you.


Edit
This was sent out on the sustainable neighbors meetup.org group by Marsha. The surburban Hermit of Fayetteville another blogger sent it to Marsha and indeed it's worth posting here.

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/02/03/farmers-abandoning-gmo-seeds-reason-will-surprise/

VICTORY!

The Humble Seed

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers market; today’s topic is the deconstruction of the often baffling terminology surrounding seeds. The goal of today's post is to hopefully provide you the reader with all the information needed to discern what the heck they are talking about in the seed catalogs you receive every spring. Before I get into talk about seed terminology, I need to do a few special notes regarding people and events that have just occurred.

First off I would like to direct all of you to look up the blog Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, run by a neighbor of mine just up the road. This guy makes in credible use of concrete bits to make these amazing curved terraces in fact his backyard is quite incredible. It’s a good blog with lots of photos and information. Secondly I would like to thank everyone who attended the Sustainable Neighbors Fermented Foods event on Saturday and thank everyone who stayed or came to join in on the Seed Swap event right after. You guys all of you are truly amazing, the response to the fermented foods event was impressive, Perhaps worth a six-month repeat towards the fall even. The seed swap crew was quite incredible as all sorts of seeds were exchanged and honestly the bulk of them were hardcore organic. Out of this I can now say with certainty what BL2 will be growing this year the plant list for 2013 is now in stone with one addition due to a conversation with Marsha about a certain plant variety and will be posted up here in the next LITFM post. Thank you everyone for participating in the event, it was great to see you all.

As a final note to the mention of the seed swap, I think those who read this blog and are in or near the Fayetteville area ought to sit down and have a crop discussion. I noticed that some of our local sustainable neighbors could grow certain things but not others and thus we may have the beginnings of our own local food network. All we need to do is either take a record of what participants can or cannot be grown and start coordinating crops. If we were able to do that we might have the humble beginnings of a new breed of farmers market. If you are interested feel free to contact me through this blog or through sustainable neighbors. You can also contact the wonderful Marsha Howe through Sustainable neighbors with your thoughts comments or if you want to participate.

With all of that said today I would like to talk to all of you about what a seed is and the terminology surrounding it.

The symbolism of the seed is quite well known as it often is used to represent raw potential, and to a lesser extent a state of plant immortality. From this tiny dry little thing comes a great plant that has equal power to feed (Lettuce), beatify (roses) or be a scourge (poison ivy) or even can do great things to improve the environment (mustard).  We as gardeners spend so much time thinking over what seeds to buy because in that tiny packet there are dozens of little potential plants that can make our corner of the word better.

Like anything else the seed is a living breathing organism with a definite life span and it has needs. Some seeds wont germinate unless certain conditions are met while others practice ally grow on anything (chia pet anyone?). Seeds like plants are illiterate, they can’t read your seed packet, don’t care how they were raised and don’t even know what a book is so their ability to do what is genetically preprogrammed is an product of ongoing evolution. Some plants are utterly reliant on mankind to keep them going as they have somehow lost the ability to produce seed (bananas, figs and naval oranges) where as others need mankind to keep their offspring in existence (Corn, Wheat, Rice.) as they are no longer able to out compete naturally occurring ‘weeds’. With all that said the closer a plant variety is to it’s original wild origins the better it tends to be in fighting off insects weed competition and handling changes in the environment. A good example can be found with Lettuce and Chicory, the former having been cultivated for centuries but is still competitive. The latter (chicory) in its basic format is still pretty much a roadside weed, but with good soil and fertilizer becomes a productive perennial leaf green.  In respects to the lettuce some lettuce seed has been known to last for decades in dry storage with modest losses in viability. Old seed may not necessarily be bad seed but for the purposes of growing crops it may not produce the necessary number of plants you seek.

Needless to say, like any other living thing you handle the seed itself requires a few things to maintain most of its viability. We at the Skye project store our seeds in a plastic BPA-free container that has an internal rubber gasket to prevent moisture from getting to the seeds. We also use a few of those little silicon gel packets in the container to reduce internal humidity to prevent any damage to the seeds. The container is typically stored at room temperature away from direct sunlight.

The seed packets above are from a variety of sources ranging from seed saved in our own test garden to certified organic seed and on to major commercial types.

Storage aside there are some terms you should know in regard to the source of your seeds take a look over these terms and then look at your seeds and see what you’ve got.

Cultivar

Cultivar is an amalgamation of the words Cultivated Variety. A cultivar is a specifically cultivated cross or breed which has been selected specifically for a special trait, such as Clemson Spineless Okra which was cultivated and selected for the lack of stiff bristles on the pods. For note Clemson is also one of those varieties that has been called a heritage or heirloom breed but no solid evidence verifies or denies it’s status.

F1 Hybrid

F1 stands for Filial First Generation hybrid; it is basically the seed from that first crossing between two parent plants that has not yet been tested for the stability of its characteristics. You may see a lot of F1 type seed in non-organic catalogs and seed racks as the major companies often rush these plants to market without full garden trials. Admittedly there is nothing wrong with an F1 hybrid, with exception of it being somewhat unreliable genetically.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

The GMO is a laboratory-produced plant or seed where the genetics of the plant have been intentionally mixed in a way that otherwise would not be naturally possible. Prime examples include Starlink Corn, Roundup Ready Corn and Golden rice. The long term health effects of these products are questionable at best as any real study is often polluted by the biotech industry if it is unfavorable. When in doubt if the seed or plant you are holding is or is not GMO do no buy it. It is better to make due then to let GMO loose.

Heirloom

An heirloom is an older variety of seed that has been handed down through the generations. The issue with heirlooms is the difficulty in establishing what is and is not old enough to count as the word has became a marketing ploy for some seed producers (yes you burpee I mean you.).

Heritage

Heritage varieties are heirloom varieties that were famous at some point or another for some reason. For instance the specific varieties grown at President Washington’s estate would be heritage varieties because of where and when they were grown. Often such varieties have some noted historical role such as Nankeen Cotton which played a part in the American Civil War as well as in slavery.

Hybrid

A hybrid is merely a cross between two similar plants that produces seed that may or may not have the desirable traits of one or both parents. Typically hybridizing is done through pollen transfers. Hybrids aren’t as bad as many make them out to be as they are often confused with ‘Man-Made’ hybrids and GMO hybrids.

Man-Made Hybrid

The MMH is a hybrid between two similarly related plants in a specific family. This process often involves manual pollen transfer and the intentional exclusion of natural pollinators to attempt to create a normally unlikely cross between two plants. Some examples of such crosses can be found in the Faux Haworthia (aloe x haworthia), the Gasteraloe (Gasteria x Aloe) and a large number of house plants and annual flowers. The MMH isn‘t necessarily bad because there isn’t supposed to be any actual genetic manipulation however the product plants that result could be pretty bizarre looking, sterile or even extra aggressive.

Open-Pollinated

Open-Pollinated seeds or OP seeds are ones produced from parent plants where nature is allowed to take it’s natural course and pollinators such as bees and butterflies do all the usual work. A lot of the non-purple color varieties of Cherokee heirloom type tomatoes were first produced in this way. Ideally OP seed should be the only way seed is produced but corporate agriculture seems to have other plans.

Variety

The term variety is used to indicate the plant or seed in question is somehow a variation on the primary variety. For instance, Yellow Brandywine and Pink Brandywine are varieties of the Brandywine type tomato. There generally is nothing wrong with a variety because it is often the product of a natural mutation some aspect of unintentional selection. As with GMO seed if there is a doubt on it’s origins do not buy it.

Wild

The term wild is often applied to seed that is very close to it’s genetic origins, Currant tomatoes, dandelions and chicory are all virtually identical to their wild origins. Wild seed isn’t a bad thing but always make sure you have absolute identification of the plants they produce.

Weed

I know you all have heard the adage ‘a weed is a plant out of place’ or ‘A weed is a plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.” This is true and I often refer to weeds with quotes because most of them do have a use. Corporate agriculture on the other hand makes profit from telling you that weeds are the downfall of civilization or well at least your yard. Most of them can be used to indicate soil conditions and weather patterns. As with Wild seed, always verify what you have before you eat anything.

With all that covered there are a number of terms being used on the market now that certainly do not help the average gardener make the best decisions for him or herself. Below is a list of a few seriously organic seed sources that do not use GMO seeds and have a good reputation for providing excellent seed and plant stock to the Skye Project

Baker Creek Seed

High Mowing Seed

Richters Seed

Southern Exposure Seed

Seed Savers Exchange

With all that said if you hardcore gardeners out there are on track by now your hot seasonal such as eggplant and peppers should have been started a week or two ago, and your ready to push on to tomatoes and other less temperature sensitive plants. If not you should get started since the weathers trying to turn more mild spring is approaching rapidly. Check in at LITFM next week for our official 2013 plant list and the next phase of our current topic. As always Folks keep ‘em growin!