Many gardeners think the season begins in the spring and ends in the fall. They are missing the most important season of them all, winter the planning and dreaming months. The months where you read and study your seed catalogs with your favorite cup of coffee or tea, while your garden continues to take a rest. While you dream of the prolific place you will create in the upcoming months. Grab a comfy seat and a warm cup of tea and I’ll tell you where to buy heirloom seeds that are great quality!

Which incidentally is exactly what I’m doing now as we are in the midst of a snow storm. Sounds exactly like good ole fashioned Ohio weather, we went from sunny and sixty degrees to ice, snow, and negative temperatures. All the animals are fed and snug in their straw covered beds, so they are warm and cozy in their barn, I get to do the same. I’m going to to stay inside on this cold snowy day with my cup of tea, a whole chicken cooking on low all day, and a pile of seed packets and seeds catalogs.

You may be asking yourself, where do I get good quality heirloom seeds. Well, that’s what I’m here for, to tell you where to buy heirloom seeds from!

What Are Heirloom Seeds

When I first started gardening I didn’t understand the value heirloom seeds had. We like to be frugal frannies as save as much money as possible. Until one day it clicked , heirloom seeds in the long run will save you MONEY. Yes you heard that right! Heirloom seeds can be saved from year to year.

Open-pollinated. This means the plants have only been exposed to natural pollination methods like insects, birds, or wind, and have not been purposely crossed with other varieties. This also means when you plant a seed saved from an heirloom plant, it will produce true to its type. All heirlooms are open-pollinated, but NOT all open-pollinated plants are heirlooms. (Some plants are self-pollinated, but they can fall into this same category.)
Passed down from generation to generation. Most people agree that in order to be considered an heirloom, a plant must have been around for at least 50 years, although many varieties have been around for much longer. This means they may have been lovingly cultivated and preserved by someone’s great-great-grandma, or grown as a market-variety hundreds of years ago.
Not hybrids. Hybrids are plants that have been artificially crossed for better production, color, portability, etc. For example, let’s say you have a variety of tomato that grows big, beautiful fruit, but doesn’t produce a large yield. But you also have another variety of tomato that has fantastic yields, but smaller fruit. By crossing these two plants, you feasibly could create a hybrid that would give you the best of both worlds. However, it would be pointless to save seeds from your new hybrid plant, as any seeds you held back would not produce true to the type of either parent. And so if you are growing hybrids, you’ll have to repurchase seed each year.

Why Do I Choose Heirloom Seeds

The List could go on and on… but here’s a few reasons.

The Taste! Heirloom seeds aren’t valued for their uniformity and their ability to be shipped all over. Heirlooms tastes, well, like tomatoes. I know you all are thinking about those grocery tomatoes that you get that taste like nothing. Heirloom tomatoes are like the tomatoes that you used to get out of your mothers garden or your grandmothers garden. I know you all know what I’m talking about the juicy full of robust flavor smells like summer tomatoes!! Not the bland mush we now get at the grocery stores. The taste alone if worth finding a quality grower and growing them!
Adaptability. If you plan on saving the seeds from your heirloom plants, some varieties will adapt to their location and grow a little bit better each year. I have heirloom paste tomatoes that I’ve saved for a few years now that just keep getting better!
Seed Saving. As I mentioned above, saving hybrid seeds doesn’t work since the seeds won’t produce the same plant from year to year . However, you don’t have to worry about that with heirlooms. If you are diligent with your seed saving, you could stop buying seeds! Until you start looking at catalogs during the midst of a snow storm and you get the itch to try something new… But all the money I’ve saved in the past says that its okay right ?
Preserving The Varieties When you purchase heirloom seeds your supporting all the generations before you who saved their seeds and past them down, and you’re becoming apart of that by saving them and passing them down.
Becoming apart Of the Story Making new memories and perfecting the seeds for your future generations. One day your children will grow the seeds you have past down to them.

Tips For Growing Heirloom Seeds

Tip # 1 Find a seed company that cares about the quality of heirloom seeds. The ones at the stores are just disappointing when it comes to quality. Plus its important to me to order from a family owned company that takes pride in their products.
Tip #2 Order your seeds during January and February. So now, if you wait till May or April the likely hood of your favorite varieties being sold out is higher.
Tip #3 Read the notes and comments from other growers about the specific areas to see how well it grew in their climates in relation to your own.