North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <doreenh@ticon.net>]

The following are how vegetables are classified as heirlooms.  The critera
were developed by Dr. Carolyn Male (heirloom expert), Craig LeHollier (also
an expert) and Kent Whealy of Seed Savers Exchange.  Also, they refer to
vegetables as heirloom, and they say fruits and roses are antiques.
Doreen Howard

Any open pollinated vegetable that was in existence before 1940 when the
first hybrids were marketed is considered an heirloom.  Open pollinated
means saved seeds will produce a vegetable identical to the seed donor.

Class I  Open pollinated varieties that were in existence before 1940 and
were handed down from generation to generation by families, ethnic enclaves
and regional farmers.  They may have never been available commercially, or
if they were, their real names have been forgotten and replaced by
family-oriented ones.

Class II  Open pollinated varieties in existence before 1940 that were
developed by seed companies and used by farmers and gardeners.  Most of them
went out of favor commercially when hybrids appeared.

Class III  The open pollinated offsprings of two heirlooms are considered by
some in the heirloom world to be legitimate heirloom varieties.  Purists
such as LeHoullier and Male don't recognize them as such, but several seed
catalogs list tomatoes in this class as heirlooms.