Sow What? Heirlooms In The Kitchen Garden

By Nancy K. Crevier

If you stepped outside the kitchen door of a colonial era home, no doubt you would find yourself looking into an abundant kitchen garden.

Near the water pump, and planted in an area with as much southern exposure as possible, you would find a treasure of fruits and vegetables organized in tidy plots of earth. Six Nations Calico Corn might serve as a support for sprawling Granny Richmond beans, and Abenaki Indian Golden Oblong pumpkins could wind their way among Red Drumhead cabbage, Jerusalem artichokes, and vine peaches.

Today’s kitchen garden can follow the wisdom of those early colonists, even down to the availability of heirloom variety fruits and vegetables. (Although it probably is not as vital to plant near the water pump these days.)

Aside from an acknowledged superior flavor, heirloom fruits and vegetables provide diverse crops that are less apt to be wiped out by disease and pests. Hybridized plants, which were developed to cultivate particular traits (such as even coloring and the ability to withstand shipping for better marketing), are vulnerable to certain diseases that could destroy the entire variety.

To the avid gardener, heirloom fruits and vegetables are the crown jewels of the garden. The antithesis of the tasteless, hybridized produce that fill supermarket shelves, heirlooms are juicy and flavorful, albeit ugly at times. Because they are not bred for uniform size and shape, lumps and bumps are a common feature of these antique varieties.

Indeed, says Sue Shortt of Shortts’ Farm on Riverside Road in Sandy Hook, the odd, ugly shapes and peculiar colors (ranging from green to rusty browns, pinks, and washed out reds) of heirloom tomatoes used to dissuade people from trying them. She adds, “We used to have trouble even getting people to try an heirloom tomato when we’d cut it up and put it out to sample.”

Jim Shortt, her husband and partner, continues, “Five years ago, no one knew what an heirloom was. They’re more popular now. They have an excellent taste.”

In their quest to breed varieties that stand up to mass marketing, growers have often bred out taste in hybrid vegetables, most notably the tomato. The high flavor quotient of heirloom tomatoes is matched by a high price, he cautions, if you aren’t a gardener.

At the Organic Farmers’ Market in Sandy Hook, the Shortts find that customers are often shocked at the cost, forgetting that these heirloom tomatoes are often several times the size of a supermarket tomato, and thus weigh substantially more. But customers are willing in the end to pay for top-quality flavor.

The Shortts’ focus is on organic produce, and many heirloom varieties don’t fall into that category, as the seed they are grown from may be chemically treated. Currently, they grow only a few popular heirloom vegetables, including Rose, Brandywine, and Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and a beet known as “Bull’s Blood.”

At Shortts’ Farm, they believe that container gardening makes an ideal type of kitchen garden. The containers can be moved for optimum sun, and they are nice in a deer-infested area, as the pots can be easily protected.

How do you know which of these special varieties will thrive in the New England garden, though, and which are the essentials to fill out a kitchen garden?

“Anything you can put in a salad, you can grow in a container,” Mr Shortt says.

Lettuce and specialty greens are necessities in a kitchen garden, both Shortts agree. Basil, parsley, onions, and cherry tomatoes are vital additions, as are bush cucumbers and beans.

Reading the seed packet labels will tell you if the plant is suitable and compact enough for container growing. This type of kitchen garden needs other special attention, too. Container-grown plants need to be watered frequently, something not all container gardeners are diligent about. Don’t overcrowd the pot, warn the Shortts. It is tempting to give that lonely little seedling lots of company, but one plant per 12-inch vessel is sufficient.

“If you’re going to go to the time and energy of [growing] heirloom or organic, you want to make sure you start off with a good organic potting mix,” states Mr Shortt. McEnroe is one brand they like. Once the seedlings have sprouted and are showing some leaves, top-dressing the pot with an organic dry fertilizer like Earthworks or North Country Organics throughout the growing season will keep the kitchen garden healthy and productive.

What’s An Heirloom?

What designates a seed as “heirloom”? According to Garry Ober of Newtown, owner of Burr Farm and Garden on Obtuse Road in Brookfield, there are no real standards.

“Typically, though,” he says, “look at 1930 as the cut-off date. Prior to 1930, we didn’t have the hybrid, and heirlooms by definition can’t be a hybrid.”

 Old-time kitchen gardens, according to this nurseryman, contained several kinds of greens, tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumbers and herbs that served medicinal, as well as culinary, uses. A modern kitchen garden needs to be “easy care,” he continues, but can contain heirloom varieties and should contain many of the same elements of an old-time garden.

At Burr Farm, not only seedlings but heirloom vegetable seeds, as well, are available.

Tongue in cheek, Mr Ober says that many seed companies have “sprouted up” selling heirloom seeds. There are hundreds of heirloom plant and seed varieties available through specialty seed companies and nurseries. The names are as unique as the plants themselves: Bronze Arrowhead lettuce, Amish Deer Tongue lettuce, Five Color Silver beet chard, Garden Peach tomato and Apollo arugula, to name just a few.

Burr Farm prefers Hart’s Heritage Seeds, which they use to grow plants in their nursery. Every year, Burr Farm tries new varieties of heirloom vegetables, often upon recommendation of a customer.

Dozens of heirloom tomato varieties populate the greenhouses at Burr Farm, among them Brandywine, Mr Stripey, Black Krim, and Mortgage Lifter.

Marconi and Corno di Toro pepper plants sprout from cell packs and quart containers, as do Reisentraub, one of the few heirloom cherry tomato selections — a good choice for a smaller garden.

Rouge D’hiver and Merveille Des Quartre Seasons sound more like selections from literature than leaf lettuce, but these frilly greens are also a must-have in the kitchen garden. Straight 8 cucumbers and Bountiful green beans, a bush bean that has been a winner for more than 100 years, are also desirable plantings.

“They’re [heirloom plants] not necessarily easier to grow,” says Mr Ober. “Hybrids may have resistance to common diseases. But people want heirlooms for the flavor.”

There’s another reason, too, that gardeners seek out heirloom plants, states Mr Ober. “It’s trendy. Gardeners are trendy people, too. But it really comes down to taste.”

Increasing Sales

Linda Whippie, hard goods manager. and Alice Reisenweaver, assistant manager, of the nursery at Lexington Gardens on Church Hill Road have seen an increase over the years in heirloom seed and plant sales, too. Heirloom tomatoes in particular are popular, as are the greens and herbs like Corn Mache and Opal Basil.

The young plants sold at this nursery are grown from seed, and Ms Reisenweaver often tries out the heirloom and new varieties of vegetables at her home in order to learn their characteristics. Like the Shortts, she finds container gardening ideal for her experiments.

Johnny’s heirloom seeds are the seed of choice for the greenhouses of Lexington Garden, along with seeds sold by Totally Tomatoes and Burpees. Customers can purchase heirloom seeds from diverse companies at Lexington Gardens. Ms Whippie stocks seeds from Botanical Interests, Livingston, and Renee’s Garden, a company formerly known as Shepard’s Seeds, and a name with which devoted gardener’s are familiar.

Because kitchen gardens tend to be compact in size, Ms Reisenweaver cautions that most of the favorite heirlooms like Brandywine, Mr Stripey, and Abe Lincoln tomatoes are large, sprawling plants, as are Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash, the cucumbers and the beans. Thai hot pepper and Sweet Banana peppers start out as scrawny seedlings, but quickly spread their branches far and wide.

“These are called ‘indeterminate,’ and need to be staked,” she says. Using trellises is one way to make room in a small garden for these highly flavorful varieties, although winter squashes will become much too heavy for even a strong support before they ripen.

A kitchen garden, regardless of whether it contains hybrid or heirloom plants, needs good circulation and sun, advises Ms Reisenweaver. In keeping with the spirit of the garden, she recommends that natural manure and compost be used to keep the plants vigorous.

Along with peppers, beets, cabbage, beans, and herbs, heirloom flowers can brighten up a kitchen garden. Lexington Gardens carries seed for Alaska nasturtium, a brilliantly colored flowering vine whose flowers add a spicy snap to salads. Mammoth Russian sunflowers are grown for their seeds, and the petals of the Signet marigold make a zesty garnish. Organically grown Munstead’s lavender and Johnny Jump-Ups are unique additions to soups and homemade ice cream.

If you are trying to plant your kitchen garden in the style of an heirloom colonial plot, though, Ms Whippie warns, “Only wealthy colonials would have grown flowers in their kitchen gardens. A typical farmer of the mid-1800s might only have a lilac bush on the property.”

And, she adds, “Colonists wouldn’t have grown tomatoes — only the ‘racy’ women had them in their gardens. They were considered poisonous at the time.”

Even as today’s families rush through the days, the commitment to flavor and quality means pausing to pick from the fruits of the past. Whether rambling across the patio, neatly contained in pots and urns, or safely fenced in next to the house, kitchen gardens are an oasis to heirloom plants and a salute to the future.