North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[hector black <hblack@twlakes.net>]

I like Lon's definition of antique as being over 100 yrs. old, referring
largely to fruit or nut varieties, and Heirloom as being a race of seeds
passed on for some years.  How many years on the latter would be open to
discussion.  It would clarify variety descriptions to have these terms
agreed to.

I seem to recall that a "land race" (I've crushed my temptation to make a
funny) refers to fruit or nut trees of a local area where the seeds have
been planted and trees inbred for so many years that they mostly come true
to seed. Would these be a third category?
    Hector Black, zone 6 middle TN

----- Original Message -----
From: road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 7:57 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom


> Heirloom in vegetable varieties I believe means that the variety was at
> some point not on the commercial market (that is, seed was not available
> for sale); the variety survives because it was passed down in a family
> or within a local community. Some of these varieties are now available
> again through ordinary seed catalogues. The term also implies an older
> variety, though I don't know if there is any consensus on the age: fifty
> years maybe? Often the age of heirloom varieties is unknown.
>
> Due to the difficulties of keeping a hybrid strain as a hybrid in this
> fashion, vegetable heirloom varieties are to the best of my knowledge
> all open pollinated. Some open pollinated varietes are of recent
> commercial breeding and are not heirlooms.
>
> I would think that a fruit variety, even if grafted/cloned, would
> qualify as an heirloom if it had been maintained in a similar manner
> within a family or community, while not being offered by any company for
> general sale. I don't know if there's any consensus on this, though.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
> > To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 9:43 AM
> > Subject: [NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom
> >
> >>    I see two terms used in NAFEX fairly often that I'd like to get
> >> clarification, or at least some sort of consensus on, "antique" and
> >> "heirloom" varieties.  To me "antique" refers to a variety that is 100
> >> or
> >> more years old and is propagated by asexual means - grafting, budding,
> >> taking cuttings, etc. so it is identical to the original variety.
> >>     However, with "heirloom" I have always thought of that as a variety
> >> propagated from seed.  It usually refers to vegetables, but can refer
> >> to
> >> perennials where the seedlings have a very strong resemblance to the
> > parent,
> >> such as the Door County apricot, which is commonly grown from seed.  On
> > the
> >> other hand, it would be unlikely to find an heirloom apple, since very
> >> few
> >> come true from seed.
> >>    What do others say about this?
> >> -Lon Rombough
> >>
>
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