Never had success with watermelons in the garden? Maybe the supermarket seed you bought is the problem.
“Variety is so important,” said Tanya Stefanec, a young entrepreneur who has turned a childhood fascination with rare and heirloom vegetable varieties into a thriving seed business.
Instead of giving up, gardeners might have better luck with a hardier variety. Her favourite, Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon, is one such cultivar.
Some may find the fruit’s clear flesh strange at first, but Stefanec said it is the sweetest and juiciest watermelon that she has ever tasted.
Read Also
Interest in biological crop inputs continues to grow
It was only a few years ago that interest in alternative methods such as biologicals to boost a crop’s nutrient…
The owner of Heritage Harvest Seed has turned a childhood hobby into a thriving business that is on track this year to sell 15,000 packets at prices ranging from $2.50 to $3.75. Stefanec, her mother and fiancé grow more than 400 seed varieties at two sites in Manitoba near Carman and Fisher Branch, and sell them via a black-and-white printed mail order catalogue and website.
The catalogue is an interesting read, with blurbs on the origins of each variety ranging from the private collections of Ukrainian and Mennonite settlers who brought seed with them at the turn of the century to more exotic and rare strains developed by native tribes.
An avid collector of old seed catalogues, Stefanec has been able to document the origins of many seed types, some of which date back to commercial seed dealers from the 19th century.
“That’s where I get a lot of my information from,” she said.
Apart from gardeners looking to add variety and vigour to their plots, some of her biggest customers are living history museums across North America.
Since all the varieties are open pollinated, ample space between plots must be kept to avoid accidental hybridization, she said. All the seeds are grown on the two sites on a total of 20 acres. As her operation expands, she is looking to recruit dedicated growers to produce more seed.
No hybrids means that gardeners can save their own seed from year to year, reducing their costs. By picking seed from the best, tastiest, most productive plants, they can enjoy consistent and reliable results that improve every year.
Stefanec said that as little as two decades ago, most gardeners kept their own seed instead of ordering from catalogues or buying new supplies each year from supermarket shelves. There’s no guarantee that seed bought off the shelf will work under a gardener’s particular garden conditions, and many are hybrids that won’t breed true even if the seed is saved.
By saving seed from the best open pollinated plants each year, gardeners can increase the enjoyment of their hobby and earn bragging rights as they develop their own strains that become fine-tuned to thrive under local conditions.
That process of natural selection is precisely what makes heirloom varieties superior because in many cases the seeds were developed by gardeners whose lives depended on their ability to grow food. Only the best were handed down from generation to generation, said Stefanec.
For example, a gardener in a short growing season area who saves seed from year to year naturally selects for faster maturity without even intending to do so.
“Certain varieties, like Jacob’s cattle bean, were once very popular. So obviously, it was grown more widely, which means there were more strains developed to adapt to different areas,” she said.
Of all the seed stock that she sells, which includes more than 60 varieties of tomatoes alone, her favourite is the drought-resistant Sylvan Guame tomato, which was given to her by an 80-year-old man who said the seed was brought to Canada from Russia.
“You don’t even have to try and it will produce three pound, red ox heart fruit,” said Stefanec.
“It’s just beautiful. Most tomatoes that grow that big are very late, but this is not a late tomato.”
An admitted bean aficionado, her catalogue shows it, with dozens of varieties, from Amish nuttle, an 85-day variety first offered for sale in 1802, to the black-and-white Flagg, also known as skunk bean, that was originally cultivated by the Iroquois tribes.
Stefanec said few people realize how much diversity in vegetable seeds has been lost in the rush toward high volume, low-cost agriculture.
For example, she said, people will never get a chance to taste at least half of the varieties that were planted at Manitoba’s Red River settlement in the early 1800s because they have been lost forever.
“It’s very shocking, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many great varieties that are now gone. That’s why it’s so important to preserve what’s left before everything disappears.”
Visitors touring Stefanec’s farm in the future had better brace themselves for a well-storied, visual feast. Her ultimate plan, she said, is to fill every corner of the place with heirloom vegetables and rare breed animals.
“Rare breed animals are so much more interesting. It’s the same thing with heirloom vegetables, flowers or herbs,” said Stefanec, who admits that preserving and enjoying weird and wonderful things for future generations has become her obsession.
