The general definition of an heirloom vegetable variety is one that was commonly grown by previous generations, but is not used today in modern large-scale agriculture. Additionally, the vegetables must all keep their traits uniformly through open pollination. Therefore, hybrids are rarely listed as being heirloom.

Sometimes the term ‘heirloom’ will be further defined by other parameters like the documented age of the variety. Some say it should be at least 100 years old. Others choose pre-1950’s or post-WWII. The 1950’s are when hybrids were first becoming widely adopted by industrial agriculture.

After decades of booming agricultural advances, there is now a social awakening dawning for home gardeners and farm markets. Industrial agriculture has, by definition, a uniformity that has made feeding masses of people easy, but it has also reduced the available varieties of vegetables down to just a few in each category. You see this when you go to a grocery store and the green beans and tomatoes look and taste the same as the ones in a store you visited in another state. The movement of home gardeners toward heirloom varieties is the backlash against this sameness.

Cultivating heirloom varieties is very important to maintain as much diversity as possible around the globe. This is a trend we at Livingston Seed are actively encouraging. We listen to our dealers when they tell us what their customers are asking for and we hunt down as many of these old varieties as we can. Offering rare and flavorful vegetables and fruit is what fuels our ever-expanding lists of varieties.

At Livingston Seed we make our selections from the pre-1950’s heirlooms lists and judge them on flavor and appearance. Then we narrow down the choices to those that have shown to be reliable, pest resistant and easy to grow for the home gardener. Our test garden is the final stage in our process. If we have trouble growing it, then we will spare you the frustration!