We grow vegetables using exclusively heirloom organic seed. Why? The quality of seed matters because you’ll be eating the fruit these seeds bear. We prefer non-GMO (genetically modified organism) seeds and you’ll find most, if not all heirlooms, are GMO free. However, this is not the only reason we prefer heirlooms.
What are heirloom vegetables?
Heirlooms are vegetables that are more than 50 years old and open pollinated. This is a very good thing. Farmers love raising heirloom because they’re resistant to many pests and diseases, highly marketable and taste great.
Heirloom vegetables grown in Aquaponics
Although we now use only aquaponic methods, we’ve grown heirloom vegetables using traditional methods such as growing in raised beds with compost. We can attest vegetables grown this organic way taste fantastic. Also understand, because the vegetable was in the backyard, fruit can ripen on the vine and harvested at peak. No doubt this adds greatly to the flavorful experience.
Given this high taste baseline, we can confidently claim heirloom vegetables grown using aquaponics taste even better. Tomatoes, peppers, basil and other leafy greens seem to have the biggest flavor boost using aquaponics, judging from our daily (unscientific) taste tests. The best way I could describe the difference in flavor are vegetables taste more “extreme.” A carrot tasted more “carroty,” or a “beet” more “beety.”
More useful information about heirloom organic seeds
Following is a useful article we found on seed sources we used it to start our research to find sources for GMO-free, heirloom seeds.
Internet search for “heirloom organic seed”
Following are seed companies referenced in the article and found in search using “heirloom organic seed” as keywords. We will purchase from several of these sources and provide updates on the results.
- http://www.reneesgarden.com/
- http://sustainableseedco.com/
- https://www.highmowingseeds.com/
- http://www.orchardhouseheirlooms.com/
- http://www.victoryseeds.com/
- https://www.marysheirloomseeds.com
- https://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/vegetables/heirloom
- https://www.stclareseeds.com/garden-help/
- http://www.southernexposure.com/
- http://www.amishlandseeds.com/
- http://www.edenbrothers.com/store/heirloom_seeds.html
- http://www.kitazawaseed.com/
- http://www.territorialseed.com/
- http://heirloomseeds.com/
- http://www.seedsavers.org/
- http://www.rareseeds.com/
- http://www.anniesheirloomseeds.com/
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