Kids on the coast

by Katharine Bogard

We all know the importance of teaching our children to eat veggies so they grow strong and healthy, but many parents are not aware that how the vegetables are grown is just as important.

Monica Brzezinski, founder of Pandora Downs, believes that to ensure biodiversity for the next generation, growing your own vegetables may soon be your only option.

“My husband and I started to become sceptical about the quality and nutritional value of supermarket food,” Monica says.

“Luckily, living on a small acreage farm, we were able to [be] as self-sustaining as we could.

“We weren’t happy, however, with the seedlings we were using and began to research.”

Monica says she was shocked at the GMO [genetically modified organism] hybrid, sterile seedlings available. '

Hybrid seed varieties are produced by cross-pollinating two plants or more. Hybrids however, usually don’t germinate properly. (That is, their seeds either won’t grow at all or won’t grow exactly the same way again.)

Monica and her husband developed an interest in heirloom seeds and their nutritional qualities. Heirloom seeds are those that have been passed on through family generations, rather than bred commercially. Heirloom vegetables are not usually available in supermarkets.

“The large food chains need the GMO vegetable to suit their needs: The need to last for long periods and be tougher on the outside for transportation,” Monica says. As a result, they may look nice in the shop but taste terrible. Being bred to withstand long storage periods, many also have lost freshness and nutritional value by the time you buy them.

“Some heirloom vegetables are very different from your run-of-the-mill supermarket varieties,” says Monica. She’s right — and they have the names to prove it! Dragon Carrot, for instance, has bright purple skin, and is orange and yellow inside; Spaghetti Squash is a large pumpkin-sized squash, which, on the inside, is full of spaghetti-like strands.

Monica says that unlike the limited range of commercially viable species you see on grocery shop shelves, heirlooms provide an assortment of vegetables, including over 200 species of tomato.

“Ancient and sacred vegetables and herbs have been tried and tested for thousands of years,” she says.

“It is important to keep these ancient varieties available to preserve biodiversity.”

Helping future generations

An heirloom seedling has many benefits over a non-heirloom variety. Heirlooms are “open pollinating, non GMO, non hybrid and chemical free,” says Monica. “They basically have not been touched — just as nature intended…grow true to type, are easier to grow, hardier, more resistant to

disease and pests, produce over a longer season, environmentally friendly... [and] they taste fantastic,” she adds. Monica says although non-heirloom varieties do produce successfully in sterile conditions, they won’t effectively produce unless circumstances are ideal. She feels we are the living trials for these GMO foods, as they have only been available for the past two decades.

Monica explains that is almost impossible to avoid GMO foods. “GMO soy and corn are in over 90% of products on our supermarket shelves,” she says. Commercial growers have found many reasons to try to modify foods. One often-quoted instance was the proposal to take genes from a cold-water fish and insert them into a tomato to make it more frost-resistant. Despite the current popularity of GMO foods, Monica says it’s proven that heirloom variety vegetables are a healthier option. She quotes a study done by the US Department of Agriculture (Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999), which examined food nutrients.

The study found that, for example, the broccoli tested in 1950 had measurably higher rates of protein, carbohydrate, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A (IU), thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid than the broccoli of 1999. “Today’s population may be becoming overweight, but they are starved of basic nutrients,” Monica says.

Maintaining food biodiversity

Monica and her husband now run Pandora Downs, whose mission is to restore heritage varieties and “bring back to consumers (and gardening) what has been lost,” says Monica.

They’re not alone. International schemes, such as the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, are also aiming to save heirloom seeds. The Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food explains the vault preserves seeds from food plants to conserve biodiversity and therefore food for the future, in the case of loss through regional or global disasters.

According to the Seed Vault’s website, more than 7,000 plant species have historically been used in human diets. However, less than 150 are used today, and all the major vegetables we eat are represented by just 12 species. (NB – there can be many varieties within one species).

Although scientists can’t give the exact number of plant varieties that have been made extinct, it’s believed many have disappeared because of the more intense farming practices of the past three decades, which tend to focus on only one variety. “Different varieties of wheat and potato can disappear as permanently as the dinosaurs,” says the Global Seed Vault’s website. Monica agrees, but believes a resurgence in the growth of these vegetables is beginning, largely as a result of organic and farmers’ markets.

“Everyone has the freedom of choice,” says Monica. She suggests people use that freedom by “ buying from local markets as much as possible”.

Monica, who is also a children’s author and mother of six, says she’s noticed a lack of education about vegetables when she’s visited daycare centres and schools. “I find it a bit sad to find so many children can’t identify the basic veggies,” Monica says.

Encourage eating by growing

Eating safer and healthier vegetables is now easier, with heirloom variety seeds becoming more widely available. With children specifically in mind, Monica has created The Brown Paper Bag of heirloom seeds to encourage kids to eat their veggies.

Instructions to nurture these rare vegetable varieties are also included, and different styles of vegetable plants are available, including seedlings suitable for pots, veggie patches or to grow as fence climbers. “I’ve found that if the children are involved in the growing of the vegetables, they are very proud to eat their harvest,” Monica explains. Monica makes her products easy for children to relate to, by giving the vegetables fun, personal names. “I think it’s a great bonding activity for the whole family as it’s difficult for young children to garden themselves,” she says. Children may have hang-ups about veggies but who could resist Cinderella Pumpkin, Dinosaur Kale or Rainbow Chard? Not only can planting your own heirloom organic seedlings be a positive experience for the whole family; no transportation or packaging is required, which increases the health and environmental benefits. “From the minute you pick vegetables their nutritional value drops. You can’t get quicker than straight from the garden to the table,” Monica says.

What can planting heirloom veggies teach your kids?

Kids will learn how to make things grow, watch life cycles and understand that food doesn’t have to come from a jar, but can be eaten straight from the plant.

“As the varieties come to seed, the children can also harvest the seeds and, after drying them, begin the process again,” Monica says.

The Pandora Bag Junior is designed to provide a more instantaneous garden for even younger kids (who perhaps have a little less patience)!

Monica says schools are now getting on board and creating their own veggie patches. Many have received grants to do so, through the federal government’s Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program.

Hopes for the future

Although heirloom variety vegetables can only be found in certain gourmet shops at the moment, Monica believes programs such as Master Chef can help raise community awareness of heirloom vegetables, and therefore their availability.

Seed banks such as the Global Seed Vault are already ensuring the preservation of some of these rare varieties. By doing so, unique and sometimes hidden genetic traits that may provide differences in disease resistance, adaptability, taste and nutritional quality can be preserved, in case we need them in the future.

Monica says seed vaults are not just a good measure in case of global warming, but also “survival after the ramifications of GMO foods are realised”.

Tips for tending your veggies

• Most vegetable seedlings can be grown in pots; check the instructions

• Ask your local garden shop about coir, a natural producct that helps keep soil moist

• Make your own fertiliser teas to keep nutrition in your soil, but limit use to no more than twice a week

• Use rainwater to water your seedlings

• Check your plants every day to see if they need watering

• Squish grasshoppers and pests and protect your harvest from possums and birds

Further reading

The Seed Savers Handbook is a guide to saving seeds in the Australian and New Zealand environment. RRP: $19. Find it and lots of good info at the Seed Savers website. Visit: www.seedsavers.net

For further information

To buy an Heirloom Brown Paper Bag or Pandora Bag Junior, or to discover organic tea recipes for your garden. Visit: www.heirloomorganicseedlings.com. Contact: 5533 8894

To find out more about the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. Visit: www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au