Grandpa Hank kept his bean seeds in Folgers cans on a shelf in the basement. Each one had masking tape on the lid with the variety and year written in pencil. Some of those beans had been in the family longer than my mom had.
I didn’t know the word “heirloom” back then. They were just Grandpa’s beans. But the funny thing is, the seed corn fields all around his place were the total opposite. Every single one of those was a hybrid, grown on contract for big seed companies. So I grew up right in the middle of both worlds without really getting the difference.
Here’s the short version, now that I actually understand it.
Heirlooms: the coffee can kind
An heirloom is an open pollinated variety that’s been passed down for a long time, usually 50 years or more. Open pollinated means that if you save the seed and plant it next year, you get pretty much the same plant back. That’s why Grandpa could keep the same beans going for decades.
What I love about them: the flavour (a Cherokee Purple tomato will ruin store tomatoes for you forever), the weird colours and shapes, and the fact that if you save seed from your best plants every year, the variety slowly gets better suited to your garden. My Dragon Tongue beans have had eight years to get used to Thunder Bay now. They’re doing great.
Hybrids: the seed corn kind
An F1 hybrid is a cross between two specific parent plants, done on purpose to get the best traits of both. Better disease resistance, more uniform plants, earlier harvest. That’s what all those Iowa seed corn fields were for. Rows of one parent, rows of the other, and teenagers like me pulling tassels off by hand every July so they’d cross the right way. Worst summer job ever. Paid great though.
The catch: save seed from a hybrid and the next generation is a grab bag. You might get one parent, the other, or something in between.
And no, hybrids aren’t GMO. People mix those up all the time. Hybridizing is just controlled pollination. It’s the same thing bees do, just with a plan.
So which do I grow?
Both, and I don’t feel bad about it.
Up here in zone 3, some heirlooms just can’t finish in time. I tried heirloom melons twice and harvested a pile of green softballs in October both times. So for anything that struggles in my season or gets hit with disease every year, I go hybrid. For tomatoes I do a couple of early hybrids so I’m eating tomatoes by late July, plus a few heirloom slicers that come in later and taste amazing.
For beans, lettuce and peas? Heirloom all the way. They do great here, and I can save my own seed. Grandpa would approve.
Where I find good seed
Small seed companies and seed swaps. In Canada, Seeds of Diversity organizes Seedy Saturday events all over the country where people trade locally grown seed. That’s where I found most of the heirlooms that actually thrive in my garden, and the people there will talk your ear off about their favourite tomato. In the best way.
I don’t use coffee cans though. Mine are in mason jars, labelled in Sharpie. Some traditions get an upgrade.
