Thursday, May 19, 2011

Heirloom vegetables pack rich history, powerful flavor

For many gardeners, nothing rekindles childhood memories like biting into an heirloom vegetable.

Up until 1950, heirlooms were the norm in the home vegetable garden, but after the creation of an F1 (first filial generation) hybrid sweet corn after WWII, hybridization of vegetables in-creased dramatically. Gardeners like hybrids? vigorous growth, uniformity and disease tolerance, but this often comes at the loss of the scrumptious flavor people remember from the earlier varieties.

?The definition of an heirloom is it has to have at least a 50-year history of not being cross-pollinated,? said Jay Buckley, who grows heirlooms with his wife Kathy at Organic Heaven in Great Falls.

To read the rest of this story, check out Saturday's At Home section. Plus, House of the Week and Martha Stewart Living.


View the original article here

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