Heirloom Seed-Saving Demonstration
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Heirloom vegetables are varieties that are grown, selected, saved, named, and shared by farmers and gardeners. In each region of the world, one can find seed-savers and plant breeders continuing the tradition of preserving and enhancing varieties of vegetables, fruits, grains, flowers, and even livestock. |
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Our Partner
We have teamed up with the Appalachian Heirloom Seed Conservancy (AHSC), a non-profit network of plant enthusiasts. Its function is to:
- Provide a means for people to exchange information about collecting, raising, and preserving the heirloom and open pollinated crop plants of the mountain South.
- Facilitate the sharing of heirloom seeds among members.
- Establish seed banks of Appalachian heirloom crops.
- Record the history, anecdotal evidence, and background of heirloom varieties.
- Provide on-going education about heirlooms, crop diversity, and sustainable agricultural practices.
For more information on the AHSC please write or call:
Appalachian Heirloom Seed Conservancy, PO Box 519, Richmond, KY, 40476. Telephone: (859) 623-2765. Email: KentuckySeeds@hotmail.com
Seed-Saving at the Kentucky State University Research and Demonstration Farm
| Several varieties of tomatoes, beans, cowpeas, cucumbers and okra were donated by the AHSC for our seed-saving plot at the KSU Farm. We have grown each variety with adequate distance and/or barriers around it to discourage cross-pollination between varieties, and enough plants of each variety were grown to select pure, healthy seed. Half of the seed will be donated back to the AHSC for their living seed bank, while is available for future seed-saving efforts and/or sharing with gardeners in the area. |
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The Varieties
Here are just a few of the heirloom varieties we've grown this year:
Rose Beauty Tomato: grown in the 1920's in the Estill/Jackson County area. A regular-leaf, indeterminant plant that yields large yellow/rose fruit.
Depp's Pink Firefly Tomato:
a family heirloom, circa 1890,
from Glasgow, Kentucky. A potato-leaf, indeterminant plant
with very large reddish-pink fruits with flecking.
Jimmy's White Cucumber: from a gentleman in Pennsylvania who traces them back three generations to his people in Kentucky around 1900. A full-sized white cuke.
- Barne's Mountain Cornfield Bean: a snap pole bean from the Barnes Mountain area of Estill County. Collected by Ott Mcmaine more that 25 years ago from George Flannery of West Irvine.
- Jimmy T Okra: grown by James T. Morris in the Elizabethtown area in the 1940-50's, and inherited by his daughter, Lisa Huffmann. A Unique variety that throws two pod types, one fluted and the other smooth.
- Myrtles' Pea (Cowpea): grown by Leander Johnson at least 100 years ago, in the Right Beaver Creek area of Knott County, Kentucky.
Fall Update
Seed from each variety has been selected, processed, and bagged for next year. Half of the seed was mailed back to the Conservancy for its living seed bank and half remains with this project and is available for any interested gardener...just get in touch!
Here is some yield data from four varieties of tomatoes we grew this year. Ten plants of each variety yielded the following results:
| Variety | Total Weight of Harvest (lb) | Average Weight of Fruits (lb) | Fruits/plant |
| Depp's Firefly Pink Tomato | 72 | 0.83 | 8.7 |
| Rose Beauty Tomato | 105.5 | 0.86 | 12.3 |
| Old Kentucky Tomato | 81 | 0.80 | 10.1 |
| Pike County Tomato | 52.5 | 0.78 | 6.7 |
Our field has been tilled under and cover cropped for the winter except for a small portion that was planted with three local garlic varieties:
- Gravel Switch: This garlic has been grown for over twenty years by John and Susan Brutto, and was collected and donated by Jake Schmitz.
- Music: This garlic is from Blue Moon farms, who grow several varieties of garlic in Richmond, Kentucky. It was obtained through a distributor, the Good Foods Cooperative Grocery, in Lexington, Kentucky.
- Lemley's White: This is a "new" heirloom grown and donated (via the Franklin County Farmer's Market) by Connie Lemley of Cedar Ring Farms.
If you have an heirloom variety you would like to share/preserve, please be in touch!
For more information contact: 
Related Efforts
Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center, Inc. The Center grows many heirloom beans and tomatoes, offering some for sale, while sharing information about farming and seed-saving to convey that "The heirloom market is a flower in the bud stage, just waiting to blossom.
Seed Saver's Exchange This non-profit is preserving hundreds of heirlooms on their 890-acre farm in Iowa.
The Save Our Seed Project This project is a group of 10 partners who work with southeast farmers and extension agents in the production of organic and heirloom seed.
Last updated January 16, 2008
