70 days. Brassica oleracea. This old English favorite is ideal for cold frames. Plant produces large heads of white cauliflower. The large tight heads are surrounded by dark green leaves. This variety keeps well for a long time. Suitable for successional sowings all year. Excellent freezer type.
 

Celery - "Golden Self Blanching" Heirloom 1898

110 days. Root Celery, this variety is grown for its large, white roots that are superb fried, or in soup. Taste and culture much like regular celery. Introduced in 1871, popular in parts of Europe.

Chicory - "Rossa di Vereona Aida" Heirloom Always in demand with fine chefs, we are told, is this exciting red-leaved Grumolo. Use these plants like mini-Lettuces in speciality salads and they are perfect when mixed with ‘Golden Grumolo’, Cat. No. 1357D. Very cold hardy and the best red colour will be produced in cool weather. (Radicchio)
 

Cucumbers - "National Pickling" Heirloom
55 days Pickling cucumber. A favorite with gardeners. Produces 6-7 inch long fruits that are thin skinned, straight with full ends, and green skin. The flesh is crisp. Very receptive to pickling spices. Fine for any pickling recipe, sweets or dills. Plants resist scab, tolerate cucumber mosaic. 

STATUS	DISTRIBUTION
Endangered	Poor

 

Lettuce - "May Queen" Heirloom
60 days. Early maturing butterhead lettuce for the earliest spring plantings. Pale green heads are tinged with red, and the sweet, pale yellow hearts have a pink blush to them. A wonderful 19th century heirloom.
 

Lettuce - "Red Lakes"  Heirloom USA pre-1988

STATUS	DISTRIBUTION
Rare	Poor

Lettuce - "Reine des Glaces"  Heirloom

One of the most beautiful lettuces, with deeply notched leaves and a convoluted head of frosty green. Also called Ice Queen.

Lettuce "Yugoslavian Red Butterhead"  Heirloom  

Red-tinged leaves form somewhat loose heads that can measure 12" across. Cutting the head in half exposes solid-green interior leaves and a center that is almost white. Excellent mild flavor. Butterhead, 55 days. Grew excellently in zone 2b/3a I will always grow this variety. My favorite.

Mustard - "Osaka Purple" Heirloom 

45 days. Looking for a new addition to autumn salads and stir-fries? Osaka Purple is sure to please with its striking green leaves with small purple veins and purple overlay. The mildly spicy mustard leaves are 6-12 inches long by 6 inches wide. Succulent stems.

Squash, Winter "Potimarron Red Kury" Heirloom 
(Cucurbita maxima)
The dark brick red coloured fruits have a chestnut flavor. They average 1,5-2,5 kg and have the shape of a spinning top. The flesh is orange, sweet and delicious. The variety is a good keeper, from 4 to 8 months. This variety is originally from Japan. It is a selection of Potimarron. It is also known as “Uchiki Kury”.
 

Squash, Winter "Indian Pumpkin" Heirloom 
(not Lakota) Cucurbita maxima. Top-shaped fruit with blue-green skin. NO LONGER IN USDA bank Practically stringless bright orange flesh that is used to make. Top-shaped fruit with blue-green skin. Practically stringless bright orange flesh that is used to make custards and pies. An early collection from the North Valley of Albuquerque, NM  

Squash, Winter "Sweet Dumpling" Heirloom 
c. pepo A small squash with nutty flavour similar to sweet chestnuts. Medium sized good for stuffing & baking. Very sweet orange flesh. (OP)

Squash, Winter "Lakota" Heirloom 

Heirloom c. Maxima (2004) 85 days. Lakota is as colorful as an Indian blanket with the fine baking quality of Hubbard. Plant breeders have recreated a stunning winter squash once prized by the Sioux but long lost to cultivation. Lakota is as colorful as an Indian blanket with the fine baking quality of Hubbard. Fine-grained orange flesh is sweet and nutty. Mature fruits are 8" x 9". Bred by Burpee to resemble the squash grown by the Sioux.

Swiss Chard - "Five Color Silverbeet" Heirloom 
 60 days Plant stems can be yellow, gold, orange, pink, violet or variegated, in addition to red or white, offering a milder chard flavour as well as ornamental value. Harvest can begin 4-5 weeks after planting for young salad greens. Pick young or mature leaves just above soil line so that plants can grow back for multiple harvests. Seed bought in Canada, but US origin  
 

Tomatillo - "Toma Verde" Heirloom pre-1840
A green tomato-type fruit that grows within a papery husk similar to a Chinese lantern. The bushy plants can measure as much as 3 to 4 feet across and produce a prolific harvest of round 2 to 3 inch fruits that adds a unique flavor to Mexican dishes. Livens up homemade salsas and blended with hot peppers makes a delicious green sauce.
This dependable, prolific variety produces larger sized fruit than some types, up to 2” diameter, and its taste is somewhat sweeter and more mellow than other varieties. Toma Verde is great for harvesting immature and slightly green to make salsa. Then, when ripe, it turns from pale green to golden and the flavor is sweeter. It’s still luscious in tart-sweet salsas, but also wonderful in pies, jams, chutneys or stews. Toma Verde is heavenly skewered, brushed with olive oil and grilled, as an accompaniment to meat or chicken.

 Tomato - "Ailsa Craig"
An excellent all purpose variety that produces a heavy crop of fine flavoured tomatoes indoors or out. It's been around for more than 60 years - proof enough? Some say there is no finer flavour. Suitable for both indoor and outdoor cultivation.

STATUS	DISTRIBUTION
Secure	Good

 

Currently propagated by Seeds of Diversity's seed-savers.

Available from a small number of mail-order seed companies. Difficult to find.

Maintained by the Canadian gene bank.

Maintained by the U.S. gene bank.

Tomato - "Beefsteak"  Heirloom 1950 Indeterminate Heirloom 1950 . Very large bright scarlet fruits that are very meaty. A favorite whose seeds are must requested. Indeterminate. 80 days

            
Tomato - "Black Krim" Heirloom 

Indeterminate This tomato variety actually hails from the Isle of Krim in the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean peninsula in Russia. A rare heirloom variety of the black tomato. This tomato variety ( Black Krim) is a medium large sized ( 10-12 ounce), maroon beefsteak with green shoulders and an intense, unique taste! Ideal for slicing, salads and more. Due to their natural salty taste, sliced Black Krims do not require salting and only a hint of pepper, which makes them an ideal tomato variety for your tomato patch if you can not have salt in your diet. The production of this variety is intense and it will do quite well in containers, but if not watered evenly during the summer, this variety is subject to splitting. About 70-80 days to maturity. Nice medium sized, dark grey-black fruits. Seeds have a green gel around them. Very unusual tomato whose skin is so dark red it is almost black in color. The inside of the fruit are dark red and very sweet and tasty. 70 days. Indeterminate.

Tomato - "Free Emerald Evergreen"  Heirloom 

Indeterminate  72 days. Green ripening to stunning neon green, inside and out with pale yellow streaks on the skin. The excitement surrounding this tomato is well earned. tasty, richly flavored, with a delicately lingering tang, and sweet creamy solid flesh. When ripe it has lovely pale yellow streaks on its skin. Marvelous for frying when unripe, which increases exponentially its sugar content. When ripe it makes fantastic green salsa and is perfect for fresh eating.  

Tomato - "Kentucky Beefsteak"  Heirloom
19th century heirloom from the hill people of East Kentucky. Huge, tasty orange beefsteaks with a fine, mild flavor. Ind. 100 days.

STATUS	DISTRIBUTION
Secure	Good

Turnip - "Snowball"1807 Heirloom
An old variety that still has a following, especially with those who use it for exhibitions. White skinned type, early and relatively quick maturing.

Watermelon - "Blacktail Mountain" Heirloom 1970 

Blacktail Mountain is quintessential watermelon. This dark green cannon ball is shot full of flavor. Its dense scarlet flesh is sweet, juicy and crunchy. It was bred for early maturity by Glenn Drowns in the 1970's. Drowns developed Amy Goldman's favorite, `Blacktail Mountain,' when he lived in Care wood, Idaho. The growing season there is only 75 days long; the six to 10-pound melons ripen in that short period of time. Compact foliage is another characteristic shared by short-season varieties. Their vines and the distance between leaves (nodes) are shorter than larger, long-season melons. "I can go through a field of different melon varieties," Drowns says, "and tell immediately which ones are fast producers. The distance between nodes on the vines will be shorter. They flower earlier, too."

Watermelon - "Moon & Stars"  Heirloom pre-1930's
 Members of the Seed Savers Exchange searched for almost a decade before Kent Whealy rediscovered this legendary watermelon on a farm near Macon, Missouri, where it had been brought from Tennessee. The early history of Moon and Stars is uncertain. Henry Fields (Shenandoah, Iowa) and Robinson Seed Co. (Waterloo, Nebraska) both were offering it during the 1930s. The medium-sized oval dark green fruits are covered with pea-sized bright yellow "stars" and usually one larger "moon." The fruits have sweet pink flesh and brown seeds Foliage is also beautifully spotted with yellow just like the fruits. 88-90 days.

Zucchini - "Tondo Chiaro i Nizza"

Watermelon - "White Wonder"  Heirloom 
 Beautiful, snow white flesh is so pale it is almost transparent! The small 3-8 lb icebox-sized fruit are round. The flavor is unique, fruity and so delicious. This refreshing variety is perfect for gourmet growers wanting to target high-class markets. They will add contrast to any display and are sure to bring attention at farmers markets. White-fleshed watermelons were common in the 1800's and Henry Fields was still selling seeds for a white-fleshed variety in the 1970's. But due to corporate agriculture, these genetic treasures are about to be lost This will be a shame as white-fleshed varieties date back hundreds of years and were developed in Africa from wild strains. This early variety is not for shipping as they crack easy, but you will enjoy their unique crispness fresh from the garden.

STATUS	DISTRIBUTION
Endangered	Poor

 

Zucchini - "Black Beauty" Heirloom introduced to the USA in 1920's

50 days. The classic dark-green summer squash that has made modern zucchini of this type popular. Introduced in the U.S. markets in the 1920's and seed companies started listing it in the 1930's. Delicious fried or baked, best picked young.
Seed Availability:

STATUS	DISTRIBUTION
Rare	Poor