Category: Food

I’m not entirely averse to modern varieties in the garden (I grow the F1 courgette “Solleil”, and am trying the F1 carrot “Purple Sun”) but most of what I grow has been tried and tested for many decades. Whether it’s for taste, for suitability to my soil and conditions, or for particular features or sentimental associations, heritage varieties seem to suit me in most cases. This year’s list:

VEGETABLES:

• Tom Thumb peas. Dating from the1850s, and occasionally sold as”Half Pint”, it only grows to about 30cm high, requiring no pea-sticks or netting. It’s quick-growing, as well, and good for successional sowing.
• Nantes carrots. Again, dating from the1850s, it seems to be the least unsuccessful carrot here, though I’ve tried many varieties over the last 10 years and absolutely none of them have been at all reliable.
• Black Russian tomatoes. I can’t find out when they were introduced, but all the catalogues describe them as “heritage”or “heirloom”.  This is about the 6th year of using seed saved from the previous crop.
• Fordhook Giant chard.  Dating back to the 1750s, this apparently is also known as “Burpees Large Ribbed”. I like this for the large leafstalks, which can be cooked separately from the actual leaves. Most other chard, especially the popular”rainbow” mixes are much smaller, with spindly stalks.
• Marvel of the Four Seasons lettuce. Dating to “before 1885”, I like this for its colours, for being very slow to bolt, and for its relative cold-hardiness.
• The Sutton broad bean. Introduced in 1925, so a bare century old. sometimes described as 9-12 inches tall, though mine are normally 12-15 inches. It doesn’t need support, is wind-resistant, and the beans have a good flavour.

FRUIT

• Black Pear of Worcester. Stretching back into antiquity, it’s a Warden”-type pear, and some sources suggest that’s associated with the visit of Queen Elizabeth 1st to Worcester, making it 16-th century at least. A very large keeping pear, it provides stored fruit in the late winter.
• Worcester Pearmain apple. Introduced in 1874, and still a very popular apple for home growers, though it doesn’t travel well so is rarely grown commercially.
• Annie Elizabeth apple. Dating from 1857, I was introduced to this around 1961 when my grandfather moved into a house that had an elderly tree of it, with a still legible label. My Aunt was Ann, known as Annie, and my mother was Elisabeth, so it stuck in my mind. It’s mainly a smallish cooking apple, but fairly sweet.
• Brown Turkey fig. It looks as though “brown turkey” was a generic term before becoming fixed to a specific variety in early Victorian times, so date of introduction is rather murky. Definitely heritage though – and still known as the most reliable fig for the UK climate.
• Cambridge Favourite strawberry. Introduced in 1938, it’s still a well-flavoured heavy-cropping variety.  I also grow Honeoya as an early variety – a relative newcomer that’s only been around for about thirty years – though, like all commercially-grown varieties, it seems to have sacrificed some taste for robustness in transport.