Organic gardening wisdom would seem to lean towards selecting garden crop species and varieties that thrive in your local community. Even better are heirlooms that have been developed by farmers and gardeners in your area. Here in Vermont, the Gilfeather Turnip is a fine example of a locally-developed variety that thrives in the region's soil and climate. Roy's Calais Flint Corn is another regional favorite--which I'll be growing for the first time this year--which is attributed to the native Abenaki people of northern Vermont.
These two varieties have been recognized by the Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste -- a program that highlights locally developed or prized foods that are in danger of disappearing due to the prevalence of commercially grown substitutes.
Much as I appreciate and love to grow these local favorites, there is something special about also creating a bond to other gardeners throughout the world by growing varieties developed in other communities. Just as I also mainly purchase my seeds from Vermont's own High Mowing Seeds, I also buy a few seeds from afar, especially when I'm trying out distant and exotic varieties.
The last couple of years, one of the tomato varieties I've grown is called Rouge D'Irak. There's nothing utterly extraordinary about the tomatoes themselves --they are nice sandwich-sized slicing tomatoes, somewhat akin to a Glamour, with smooth red skin and a little acidic bite, though not too sour, that I really like. The interesting thing about these tomatoes is that they are from the family-saved seed from an Iraqi homestead. Forced to flee the war in Iraq. the gardener brought seeds from his family heirlooms with him to France. From there, he shared them with the good folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, who propagated them and offered them in their stunning catalog of all open-pollination, non-GMO vegetable seeds. Baker Creek offers heirlooms from many American growers, but annually offers varieties from world 'hot spots' where war, politics, or natural disaster threatens to wipe out locally-developed vegetables. Reading the published Publishing notes in their catalogs from the folks who offer them these seeds, it is clear that in many areas where war forces subsistence and home gardeners to flee, the seeds they have saved down through the generations are often lost. Redevelopment in Iraq will likely entail the installation of modern, commercial agricultural practices that will supplant local organic agriculture.
Some folks count that as progress, and I will admit that there are advantages to an organized agricultural program that may not be present in a system based solely on home gardening. But importing commercial quantities of industrially-developed mono-crop tomato varieties without investigating local types that are well adapted to the growing conditions, and supplanting the means of self-sufficiency with a commodity market model as the primary or sole food supply, are certainly not among those advantages, and do the local culture a grave disservice. I'm troubled by reports that folks are not allowed to save over seed in Iraq anymore but must purchase from approved commercial seed suppliers--but I honestly don't know the truth of this, and it might be hype.
Since nobody is about to call me to ask advice on the agricultural redevelopment of Iraq or anywhere else, my options for effective action are limited. But I can grow Rouge D'Iraq tomatoes, and be mindful of their origins and the people who grew and loved them in their own home gardens.
And, okay, I can start trays of them and give a plant to anyone who will listen, too, and save my own seeds over for future years. I'm such a troublemaker. :)
These two varieties have been recognized by the Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste -- a program that highlights locally developed or prized foods that are in danger of disappearing due to the prevalence of commercially grown substitutes.
Much as I appreciate and love to grow these local favorites, there is something special about also creating a bond to other gardeners throughout the world by growing varieties developed in other communities. Just as I also mainly purchase my seeds from Vermont's own High Mowing Seeds, I also buy a few seeds from afar, especially when I'm trying out distant and exotic varieties.
The last couple of years, one of the tomato varieties I've grown is called Rouge D'Irak. There's nothing utterly extraordinary about the tomatoes themselves --they are nice sandwich-sized slicing tomatoes, somewhat akin to a Glamour, with smooth red skin and a little acidic bite, though not too sour, that I really like. The interesting thing about these tomatoes is that they are from the family-saved seed from an Iraqi homestead. Forced to flee the war in Iraq. the gardener brought seeds from his family heirlooms with him to France. From there, he shared them with the good folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, who propagated them and offered them in their stunning catalog of all open-pollination, non-GMO vegetable seeds. Baker Creek offers heirlooms from many American growers, but annually offers varieties from world 'hot spots' where war, politics, or natural disaster threatens to wipe out locally-developed vegetables. Reading the published Publishing notes in their catalogs from the folks who offer them these seeds, it is clear that in many areas where war forces subsistence and home gardeners to flee, the seeds they have saved down through the generations are often lost. Redevelopment in Iraq will likely entail the installation of modern, commercial agricultural practices that will supplant local organic agriculture.
Some folks count that as progress, and I will admit that there are advantages to an organized agricultural program that may not be present in a system based solely on home gardening. But importing commercial quantities of industrially-developed mono-crop tomato varieties without investigating local types that are well adapted to the growing conditions, and supplanting the means of self-sufficiency with a commodity market model as the primary or sole food supply, are certainly not among those advantages, and do the local culture a grave disservice. I'm troubled by reports that folks are not allowed to save over seed in Iraq anymore but must purchase from approved commercial seed suppliers--but I honestly don't know the truth of this, and it might be hype.
Since nobody is about to call me to ask advice on the agricultural redevelopment of Iraq or anywhere else, my options for effective action are limited. But I can grow Rouge D'Iraq tomatoes, and be mindful of their origins and the people who grew and loved them in their own home gardens.
And, okay, I can start trays of them and give a plant to anyone who will listen, too, and save my own seeds over for future years. I'm such a troublemaker. :)
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