Seed planting time: Local seed savers have heirlooms for you

By Margaret Gilmour

The ancient tradition of seed saving sprouted in Chester County centuries ago when Native Americans discovered a rich mix of fertile soil, yielding topography and plenty of rainfall. In fact, Southeaster Pa. is a mecca for farmers and botanists, as just about any seed you sow here—planted in the right conditions of course–will thrive.

In our ideal microclimate we can cultivate anything from Mediterranean produce to Asian vegetables, along with a diverse variety of flowering plants and herbs. It’s no wonder, then, that we are home to a renowned group of seed savers interested in salvaging local history and making hundreds of species of heirloom vegetable, fruit, herb and flower seeds available to us. Many of the seeds are age-old Chester County varieties.

And since March is seed planting time, we’ve decided to devote this week to seed growing and saving.

I connected with two area seed keepers you’ll hear from this week:

William Woys Weaver, dubbed by the NYT as “the Julia Child of long-lost vegetables,” who “has transformed the field of heirloom vegetables;” and

Tim Mountz, an ethonobotanist, forager and local seed-saver extraordinaire. He and his wife Amy created Happy Cat Organics where they sell over 30 seed varieties online, at local whole food stores and farmers’ markets. Come back Wednesday to learn more about Tim and Happy Cat Organics.

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Dr. Weaver is a plant scholar and author of over 10 books, his most notable book being the garden bible for all plant lovers: Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving and Cultural History. It’s available at area stores and online at Mother Earth News where Dr. Weaver is a contributing editor.

The book, which won a James Beard cookbook award, imparts knowledge on ancient plant varieties, plant lore and the future of our food. He wrote the book thirteen years ago before “locavore” even existed, but at time when genetically-modified organism (GMO) seeds used in large scale farming methods threatened our health and the health of our planet.

While GMO seeds promote a monoculture threatening plant species everywhere, heirlooms seeds, in contrast, enhance biodiversity. They also have better flavor and nutritional punch than the seeds that have their size, shape and flavor manipulated by breeders.

By the time Dr. Weaver published Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, he had spent over thirty-years studying, growing and cooking with heirloom vegetables. While he is no longer supplying seeds to the Seed Savers Exchange, Dr. Weaver still trades seeds with museums, botanical gardens, research centers, seed collectors and lucky friends. He also saves seeds for his research work on early food of Pennsylvania.

Here in an excerpt from my interview with Dr. Weaver:

How long have you been saving seeds?

I have been saving seeds for at least 40 years, probably 50 since I was doing it in high school. In fact while in high school I maintained quite an elaborate garden, although it was not in Chester County, it was in Upstate New York and a real test of one’s patience since it perched on a hillside and carved out of clay soil that was little better than pottery material, and the growing season was lousy, the winters even worse.  But I was saving seeds, both garden seeds and from native plants.

What got you interested in seed saving?

My grandfather Weaver was a horticulturist and since I grew up with my grandparents (at least for the early part of my life) my grandfather’s enthusiasm rubbed off on me.

Who started the Roughwood Seed Collection?

My grandfather did sometime about 1932 or 1933. I gave it that name when I moved to Devon, PA in 1979.  Until then the collection had no definitive name, so I named it after the historical property where I now grow everything.  That’s my “terroir” so to speak: Roughwood on Devon Hill.

How many varieties do you have today?

I have over 4,000 food plants today, but I am also back-breeding heirloom dahlias and have recreated nearly 100 that resemble extinct dahlias of the 19th century.

How did some of the beans get their names?

The names came with them, for the most part.  Several had different names because the same thing came to me from different families, who of course had their own monikers for what they grew.  I added the family names just to keep them straight and to point to the people from whom my seeds were collected.  For example, Sarah Kaulback gave me several beans and provided the names of the varieties as they were known locally; her family operated the White Horse Tavern at Great Valley, and her father called one bean the White Horse Tavern Bean because he made dishes with it for the tavern.  Sarah also gave me the cookbooks for the tavern going back to the 1820s, so the seeds and cookbooks came together.  Both are priceless.

What can you tell me about the famously delicious Dr. Martin lima bean?

Dr. Harold E. Martin (1888-1959) was a friend of my grandfather’s and one of my grandfather’s seed-saving buddies.  Dr. Martin was a dentist who owned a small farm along Street Road in Westtown near West Chester.  My grandmother took me there many times to drop off and pick up vegetables and fruits that my grandfather horse-traded with Dr. Martin.  Dr. Martin is famous for his lima bean, which he developed in the 1920s, but he also created the True Black Brandywine and quite a few other amazing things.  He was a genius when it came to breeding plants.

Why should our readers consider heirloom seeds?

Aside from the great local stories and the fun that comes from raising something that has been here in Chester County for perhaps 200 years, heirlooms in general are better for us nutritionally.  The process of creating modern hybrids has introduced a decline in the nutritional quality of the food plants we eat –across the board: grains, fruits, you name it.  The decline is not evenly spread so it is difficult to quantify in simple terms, but in general the decline in nutritional value has been anywhere from 20 to 30 percent since 1950.  This means you have to eat more than our ancestors did in order to get the same amount of vitamins, minerals, protein, etc.  To put it in simple terms: 1 heirloom tomato equals one and half modern tomatoes in nutritional content. This nutritional measure only applies to heirlooms organically raised.

What are the bean varieties in your Chester County Collection?

• Dr. Martin’s Lima (Westtown, PA)

•  Workhizer’s Leopard Bean also called Howellville Pole Bean (Tredyffrin Township)

• New Garden Speckled Pole Bean

• Kaulback’s White Horse Tavern Bean (Great Valley)

• Octarora Cornfield Bean

• White Sieva (old type of lima grown by the Quakers as early as 1730)

•  Walker’s Great Valley Long Pod (Tredyffin Twp)

•  Beaumont’s Gray Snap Bean (Great Valley)

Be sure to pick up Heirloom Vegetable Gardening book to learn more about seed varieties developed in Chester County.

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Dr. William Woys Weaver is Director for the Keystone Center for the Study of Regional Foods and Food Tourism at Drexel University, and a Contributing Editor of Mother Earth News. He lives and gardens in Devon in the former Lamb Tavern, built in 1805.

Photo: Delaware Indian bean grown and photographed by Dr. William Woys Weaver.

JUST ADDED:

Heirloom Gardening Workshops in a 3-Course (Summer) Series

Each course will cover different topics related to seed saving, seasonal planting, organic fruit growing, heirloom grains, and edible flowers with hands-on experience in pruning, planting, seed and vegetable harvesting.

Click here for more details: