Many gardeners today are using the word heirloom when they really mean open-pollinated or non-hybrid.  Heirlooms are treasures.  Heirloom seeds are the seeds for open-pollinated varieties with histories, with stories.  At one time, someone, somewhere thought each heirloom was a treasure and passed on its story.  However, not all open-pollinated varieties are treasures.  Sometimes the original reasons have been forgotten.  Sometimes they are being grown in a different climate.

Jan Blum, who started one of the first "heirloom seed companies", told me once about how much garbage she was finding as she rather systematically tested many of the known heirlooms.  Many varieties were not adapted to her growing conditions in Idaho.  Many were not good for anything she could recognize.  Few indeed were true treasures.

Our goal is to find the true heirloom treasures and offer the very best for you to begin your own seed saving adventure.  We encourage you to save seeds from the individual plants that meet your expectations, whether they be climatic, culinary or survival.  Fortunately, this is not difficult nor time consuming.

You can find complete seed saving instructions for beginners and experts on the web site of ISSI, The International Seed Saving Institute, the non-profit we established to teach seed saving.

We invite you rejoin the ranks of those saving their own seeds by choosing from the delicious, varieties we have selected.

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