Why We Appreciate Heirloom Seeds

   When I was a kid, every once in a while, someone would give us some vegetables from their garden. I was just thinking about the tomatoes we got one time, that my mom sliced up and served with mayonnaise. Green beans were another vegetable that was on the table from someone's garden. Most people today struggle with liking vegetables, but I don't, and I think this is the reason why. Vegetables were precious to my mom, and now even to me.
    Growing up in the Garden State enhanced my love for vegetables and fruit. One time, we went over to my grandparent's house and my grandmother was so excited. I guess she hadn't looked in her back yard for a couple of weeks, but when she went out there that morning, she found a full grown water melon that she didn't even plant! It must have come from the seeds that were spit out by the consumers a couple of weeks ago. You don't see this happening very much today, for some reason.
   Did you know that the honeybee population is declining? It is declining for reasons unknown to even the experts. No one knows what to do to remedy the problem. The decline and possible extinction of honeybees will have a serious impact on our ability to grow quality food in the future. But not only are we losing our honeybees, but some plants are even on the decline. They seem to be disappearing. In spite of that fact, there are things we can do to help remedy the problem. In fact, we should be doing things today that will have a positive impact on our future.

    Heirloom plants are plants that have not been genetically modified or tampered with. They are plants that are basically the same as when they were originally created, around 6,000 years ago. Of course, there are some minor changes that occur over time, but heirloom plants produce food that is packed with nourishment and at the same time, full of color and beauty.
   One thing that we can do to protect and preserve heirloom plants is to find where the seeds are located and sold. There are people who have carefully saved seeds from these plants down through the years. They have replanted these seeds and are growing crops from the heirloom seeds they have collected. We can do this too. There are a few companies that focus on heirloom seeds and sell them to the public.
   Part of the problem we are facing today, has to do with the need to produce as much food as possible. There are a few different ways that this is accomplished. A more recent way that is used in this country, is to develop industrialized farms. In the past, people have always depended upon local farms to supply the food they needed. People used bartering, which is a form of payment which uses produced items as commodity instead of using cash. For example, if you grew asparagus, but needed eggs (because you grew plenty of asparagus on your farm), you would take some of your asparagus and trade it with someone who had plenty of eggs. But we don't do bartering today. We simply go to a grocery store and pay cash for our food. While this is not necessarily wrong, it does lend itself to a wrong conclusion about growing food. Because we live in a culture which prizes convenience, we will take the easiest road possible to provide for our needs. We will not consider the ramifications of what we do today, nor will we consider what the future holds for us and our descendants when it comes to eating/buying food choices.
   Industrialized food is intended to grow a lot of food for a lot of people, but in one large 'farm'. Produce has to be sprayed in order to protect against bugs. Seeds have to be genetically modified also to help produce a defense against insects. It is cost effective to use chemical fertilizers in place of compost and other natural fertilizers when trying to produce a ton of food. The food that is produced goes to big named companies which pack the food and send it to the stores. The food also must have the same features such as flavor and texture, so that it is uniform wherever it is sold. This kind of food production can only happen on large farms which use cost effective means to produce the amount of food needed by the companies who use the end product. These farms are also inhumane in the way they treat their animals. Chickens have been hatched and live their lives in a dark, unsanitary place before being slaughtered. Cows are kept in a small space, feed some kind of grain diet (cost effective. little nutritional value), and are very unsanitary due to the fecal matter they must stand in.
   Most people don't like the term 'olden days', so consequently when something was used a hundred years ago, we think of it as being  passe. We discard the idea. We think of it as primitive. We pridefully acknowledge the accomplishments of technology and place food production in that category. Farmers have become a stereotype. When we think of a farmer, our minds think of a man wearing a plaid shirt holding a pitchfork in his left hand and a cowboy hat. We discard this idea. We disdain this idea. This idea violates our idea of progress. Also, if this idea is a valuable one, it will mean that we will have to do some hard work and give up some of our conveniences, which is too hard for us to do.
   The answer is obvious though. We need more local farms. We need to support local farmers. Today, there are doctors who are discouraging their sons from becoming doctors, because of the hardships involved with the profession of physicians. The same thing is happening with farmers. It is becoming increasingly harder to be a farmer today. Industrialized farming is supported in many ways by the government, and lately, bills are being passed to make local farming much harder. If the trend continues, local farming could come to an end. So, if we can't be farmers, at least we can find local farms in our areas and we can support them. Do research. Find the farmer's markets in your area. Support them whenever possible. Our future, and the future of our children and grandchildren depends on it.
Of Pasta And Self Preservation article

My niece's beautiful chicken