What is an heirloom vegetable?

My sister and I have been writing this blog about our progress growing heirlooms, but I'm not sure that we ever sufficiently explained what an heirloom vegetable actually is. From the reading I have done, I understand an heirloom to be undeniably a vegetable that has been grown at some time throughout history. There is, however, some considerable debate over how old a vegetable must be to be considered an heirloom. Some believe that a vegetable must be 100 years old to be an heirloom, whereas others think 50 years is sufficient. Whatever the variation of age ranges, I would choose to call an heirloom vegetable any vegetable that is 50 or more years old.

There are other defining factors of an heirloom, such as the fact that they are not widely produced commercially or sold in supermarkets. This is because the heirloom vegetable or fruit is not genetically modified, like traditional supermarket vegetables, to be easily stored, and therefore they rot very easily.

Despite the negative of storage, heirlooms have the bonus of not being as negatively affected by their environment as other vegetables. They are often impervious to severe weather, insects or pests, and disease. As a result, we don't have to use pesticides to grow these vegetables and get a heavy yield (not that we would use them anyway).

Jennifer