Seeds with a Story

For foodies, a good time on a Saturday often means heading to the farmers’ market or a local farm stand. Increasingly, these shoppers opt for goods grown from heritage seeds (also known as heirloom seeds) and generally categorized as having been grown for fifty years or more, unlike mass-produced hybrid varieties.

Heritage varieties are often prized for their tasty flavours or their links to a region’s history and culture. Tancook Island cabbage, for example, has been grown in Lunenberg County, Nova Scotia, since German settlers planted it in the 1700s. Once used to make sauerkraut that was sent around the world in sailing ships, it’s been brought back from near extinction by a handful of local growers.

Canada’s oldest wheat, Red Fife, came to Peterborough, Ontario, in the mid-1800s, purportedly via a hat used to scoop up some Ukrainian wheat in a Scottish harbour, and it’s newly popular with artisanal bakers, in part because its gluten is said to be easier to digest.

For growers and makers, seed diversity and its role in coping with pests, diseases, and the weather extremes associated with climate change may be a consideration. “That’s one of the best tools that farmers have available to them: a wide diversity of seeds to choose from, to work in a variety of different types of farming conditions,” says Aabir Dey, director of the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, a program of the non-profit organization SeedChange. “We want to preserve them, because it might not perform as well as a modern hybrid variety in terms of yield. But there might be other characteristics that are worth exploring.”