Over the last three years we have been growing heritage vegetables as well as more modern varieties and whilst we have not been conducting a scientific experiment, the outcome is interesting.

2009 Harvest

We trialled heritage varieties of Tomato (San Marzano Di Lampadina) and French Bean (Blauhilde).

Both varieties were grown under the same conditions as the modern varieties; Tomato (Gardener's delight) & French bean (Pantheon)

Firstly the French beans - The heritage variety (Blauhilde) really did struggle, with generally weaker plants succumbing very easily to slug damage and mildew.

Out of the total crop sown, around 70% succeeded to seedling stage but only 25% of the plants made it to cropping stage of which crops were generally poor.

Tomato San Marzano Di Lampadina did very well as seedlings (probably due to the lovely warm spring).

They produced quite strong plants with a fair crop of medium sized fruits.  However, the time taken to ripening seemed to exceed the amount of sunlight hours available in the North of England and fruits struggled to ripen.

A batch of Green tomato chutney put them to good use.

We have also grown other old varieties of vegetable including brassicas and shallots and in general, the results have been much the same with plants struggling through the wet summer and producing less yield with a constant fight against disease.

Although heritage varieties are worth growing for their different flavours and textures, we found that we have had to nurse them to production stage with a great deal of loss.

Worth mentioning, is the simple fact that our Cumbrian summers over the last three years have been rubbish, to say the least.  Extremely wet, dark and with very little strong sunlight.

We are interested to hear what other growers of heritage vegetables have experienced around Britain and we certainly still advocate growing the older varieties, although we do suggest researching the varieties well to see if they will be suited to prevailing conditions.