The Best Heirloom Vegetable Varieties for a Backyard Garden

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I'm a big fan of growing heirlooms in my vegetable garden, and the vast majority of the vegetables that I grow are heirloom varieties and in particular 19th century heirloom varieties. There are dozens and dozens of different heirloom vegetables, and I have tried only a small portion of them, but of the ones that I have tried growing in my garden I have put together a list of what I consider to be some of the best heirloom vegetable varieties for a backyard garden.

The term "best" is subjective, of course, and these are just some of my favorite varieties that I like to grow in my own garden. The varieties that I included on this list are ones that are all old heirlooms (19th century or earlier), and they are all open-pollinated varieties. I also tried to focus on heirlooms that are accessible through online seed catalogs. There are a few other more obscure varieties that I grow in my garden, but the seeds are harder to find for those varieties, so I tried to stick with more easily accessible varieties for this list.

Why Choose Heirlooms?

One reason why I really like growing heirloom varieties is that they are open-pollinated so you can save seeds from your plants to grow again the next year. If you try to do that with hybrid varieties the seeds won't grow true to type. So, if you plant a seed from a hybrid variety you will end up with a mystery variety that won't be the same and may or may not have characteristics that you want. (Note: I included an old potato variety in this list, and potatoes are a bit of an exception because they are usually grown from actual potato tubers rather than from seed.)

With heirloom seeds, though, you could theoretically buy seeds just one time and then keep saving them from your plants from year to year. In reality, though, with the potential for bad growing seasons from weather, pests, etc. you might have to replenish your seed stock every once in a while if you have a bad harvest one year. And seeds from biennial plants are a bit more time consuming to save, so it might be easier to purchase seeds for those plants instead. But, overall, growing heirloom varieties can help you to save a lot of money on seeds over time plus you can have seeds that are specially adapted to the growing conditions of your particular garden, too.

Another reason why I really love growing heirloom vegetables is because I love the historical connection to them. For me, it just seems so much more fun to grow a variety that is from the 1800s or earlier than it is to grow a modern-day variety. I tried to include approximate dates for these heirloom varieties when I was able to find a date, but some of these heirlooms have unknown origins or origins that aren't completely clear. To the best of my knowledge, though, from what I have seen in researching these varieties, they are all varieties that date from the 19th century or earlier.

Resources for Heirloom Varieties

Some of the information I learned about these varieties came from the descriptions in various different online seed catalogs. Seed Savers Exchange and Monticello in particular are two websites I used that have some good information about heirloom varieties in their descriptions of different seeds. I've also learned a lot about the history of different heirlooms from readings descriptions of them written by Willian Woys Weaver. His book Heirloom Vegetable Gardening is a great resource for learning about heirloom varieties, and you can also find several articles written by him including excerpts from that book online here. I also have a book I found at a used book store called Taylor's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables. This book is an older one that is out of print, and some of the varieties listed in this book are ones I have never heard of, so they may be ones that are no longer available to purchase as seeds. But I used the book to find out some information about some of the varieties that I grow in my garden.

Many of these vegetable varieties can be found in several different online seed catalogs, so an online search will probably turn up several options for many of these varieties, or if you already have a favorite seed company you like to use than you might be able to find some of these varieties there. Or, if you want to find some new ideas for online sources for heirloom seeds you can check out my list of some of the places where I've bought seeds before and/or where I would consider buying from if I needed some new seeds.

The Best 19th Century Heirloom Varieties for a Backyard Garden

I grouped these vegetable types in alphabetical order. You can also jump to a specific category by clicking on one of the links below:

• Bush Beans
• Pole Beans
• Carrots
• Lettuce
• Peas
• Potatoes
• Cherry and Grape Tomatoes
• Full Sized Tomatoes
• Winter Squash

Beans (Bush Beans)

Jacob's Cattle (Circa 1600s or Earlier)

Jacob's Cattle beans are a very old variety of beans that were mostly grown in the Northeastern part of America. These beans are also sometimes called Trout beans or Appaloosa beans. I got some seeds from these beans from Old Sturbridge Village several years ago and I have been saving seeds year after year ever since then. (As of the time I am writing this I don't believe their website has seeds for sale, but you can find seeds for these beans online from several different seed companies, though.)

These beans have been reliable beans in my garden, and even on years where my beans have struggled because of the weather or insects, these beans have done better for me than some other varieties of beans have done. When the beans are very young you can eat them fresh, but these are intended more to be a dry bean to use for soups, baked beans, etc. And they have such a striking appearance with their red and white speckled appearance, too.

Soldier (Old New England Bean - Likely Pre-19th Century)

Soldier beans are a white bean with a red splotch on the side that is supposed to look like a soldier. I've tried to see the soldier on these beans, and I really just don't see it. But whether or not they actually look like they have an image of a soldier on them they are still great beans to grow. Just like the Jacob's Cattle beans these are ones that have done well for me in my garden, and I have been saving seed from these beans each year for several years now.

I got my original seed for these from visiting Old Sturbridge Village, but they can be found online from other sources as well. These are also best as dry beans for soups or for baked beans, but if you pick them when they are young they can be eaten fresh as well.

Beans (Pole Beans)

Cherokee Trail of Tears (1830s or Earlier)

These beans are said to have been carried by the Cherokee people on the Trail of Tears march from North Carolina to Oklahoma. This bean makes a good snap bean for fresh eating when the bean pods are still young. And if you let this bean stay on the vine until it is fully mature it will produce glossy black seeds. These dried beans are pretty small, so they might not make quite as good of a dried bean as a larger-sized dried bean would be. Because of this small size they might work better as a snap bean for a backyard garden, but letting some go to seed will allow you to keep back some seed for the following year, and any extra dried beans can still be used for soups or for baked beans even if they are a smaller size.

Mayflower (Pre-19th Century)

The Mayflower bean doesn't seem to have a very clear history, and I have read conflicting accounts of the origins of this bean. I have read that the bean came to America on the Mayflower in 1620, but I have also read that the bean was grown by the Seneca and Iroquois and that it was called the Corn Hill Bean. This bean is also sometimes referred to as the Amish Knuttle bean, and it has also been grown by the Amish for a long time. Whatever the history of this bean may be, though, it is a bean that has been around for quite a while. I usually grow these as dry beans, and the beans are a pretty speckled bean with cream and dark mauve coloring. Size-wise, these dried beans are smaller than some other variety such as Jacob's Cattle, but the fact that they are pole beans makes them a good option if you want to save on some space by growing beans vertically rather than bush beans.

Kentucky Wonder (1864/1877)

The Kentucky Wonder bean was originally called Texas Pole when it was first introduced in 1864, and then in 1877 it was introduced again with the new name of Kentucky Wonder. This is the main bean that I like to grow for fresh eating. I love to eat these straight off of the plant because the flavor of a fresh-picked bean is unlike any other. Some vegetables taste similar whether you eat them fresh-picked or not, but green beans have a completely different flavor to me when they are eaten right after being picked. Even beans that were picked a day or two ago don't have the same taste as a bean that you pick and eat right away. These beans have done well in my garden and they are a variety that I like to grow every year.

I don't think I have any photos that I've taken of the Kentucky Wonder bean, but it looks like a pretty standard green bean. The dried beans are a light brown color, but I didn't include a picture of those because this bean is best as a string bean to eat fresh rather than as a dry bean in my opinion. I don't see any reason why these beans wouldn't work as a dry bean, but they are smaller and flatter beans, so if you wanted to grow these to use in soups or for baked beans it would probably make more sense to stick with a larger, meatier bean like Jacob's Cattle. Plus these beans are so good straight off of the plant that I never let any of them get to the dry bean stage unless I am specifically saving some for seed for the next year's planting.

Scarlet Runner (18th Century or Earlier)

The Scarlet Runner bean is distinctive both for it's beautiful scarlet-colored flowers and for it's beans that are a deep purple with black speckles when they are dried. I've heard that they can be eaten fresh as a snap bean when they are very young or as a shell bean when they are more mature, but when I have grown these in my garden I have grown them for dry beans, letting them mature fully on the vine and harvesting the dried seeds inside.

According to William Woys Weaver, in America this variety of bean was typically grown as an ornamental variety, which makes a lot of sense considering how striking the flowers of this bean are. I think, though, that the beans inside are a great addition to soups or a pot of baked beans, too. The downside that I have found for this bean, though, is the fact that it can take awhile to mature if you are growing these beans to harvest the dried beans. So, if you have a short growing season these might not be the best option unless you are growing them just as ornamental beans.

Carrots

Danvers Half Long (1870s)

One of the reasons why I really like the Danvers Half Long carrot is because it is a variety with origins local to where I live. The carrot is named after the town of Danvers, MA, which is only about a 20-30 minute drive from where I live (unless it's rush hour traffic time!) If you are interested in the older 1870s variety, just be aware that there is a newer version of the Danvers that is called Danvers 126 that is a strain from the 1940s.

This carrot isn't meant to grow overly long, and it has a bit of a rounded end rather than a pointed end. I find the flavor to be a nice mild carrot flavor, too, rather than a very sharp carrot flavor. Overall, carrots have been a struggle for me in my garden, and last year's harvest was especially bad because some animal had eaten the tops off of the poor carrot seedlings several times throughout the growing season. But on the years when my carrots have done better I have really enjoyed these Danvers Half Long carrots.

Lettuce

Tennis Ball (1804 or Earlier)

Tennis Ball lettuce is an old variety of lettuce that was grown by Thomas Jefferson in his gardens at Monticello. This lettuce is a Bibb-type of lettuce that makes small heads of lettuce. Tennis Ball lettuce does well in the cooler weather but doesn't very well once the heat of summer comes. I grew Tennis Ball lettuce in my garden last spring and I enjoyed the nice mild flavor of this lettuce. This picture shows the lettuces when they were still growing, so they weren't fully-grown heads of lettuce, yet. You can harvest this lettuce at any stage, though, which is what I mostly did. It was nice to be able to harvest some leaves here and there from the plants and then let them put out some new growth for another harvest.

Peas

Champion of England (Introduced in 1843)

If I had to pick just one heirloom pea variety to plant of the ones that I have tried it would be Champion of England. This pea variety has done well for me each year that I've grown it, and it produces a good amount of nice big pods of peas. Of the four pea varieties that I usually grow, this is the variety that gives me the highest yield of peas. My favorite way to eat peas is to just eat them raw fresh off the plant, so I've never actually tried drying these or cooking them, but I think that this variety would probably work well for those uses, too.

Dwarf Gray Sugar (Introduced in 1881 but may be from as early as the 1770s)

The dwarf gray sugar pea is one with edible pods if you pick the peas when they are still fairly young. This pea has a nice sweet flavor, and the flower blossoms on the plant are a beautiful purplish-pink color, too, so they can be both ornamental and edible.

Prince Albert (Introduced in 1842)

This English pea variety is one that I enjoy growing for the novelty factor because a pea named after Prince Albert just sounds so very Victorian! The pods are on the smaller side, so overall this pea variety isn't as productive as one with larger pods like the Champion of England variety, but the peas are still delicious, and they are a fun pea to grow if you want a historic pea variety. This variety is harder to find than the other ones on this list, but I found my seeds from the Monticello Seed Shop. As of the time I am writing this it looks like they are out of stock for those seeds, but hopefully they will be back in stock again in the future!)

As an interesting side not, there used to be a Victoria pea variety as well, but I haven't been able to find any source of seed for the 1840s Victoria pea, so it may be an extinct variety now or at least not one that is available through seed catalogs. It would have been fun to grow the Prince Albert and Victoria peas together, though!

Prussian Blue (18th Century)

The Prussian Blue peas are a variety that grows fairly low to the ground. I usually grow them up poles or some type of trellis system, but since these plants don't get as high as other pea plants you could possibly get by without giving them any support. The pea pods are definitely on the smaller side (especially compared to a variety like Champion of England), but they still taste delicious, and they could be a good option if you are looking for a pea variety that doesn't get very tall.

Potatoes

Irish Cobbler (1876)

This origins of this potato aren't very clear although some people say that the potato was grown by shoemakers in the United States who were Irish. Of the heirloom potatoes that I grow this variety is the only one that is easily accessible to order online through seed catalogs. The Irish Cobbler potato is also the one that does the best in my garden as well.

This variety is an early maturing variety and of the potato varieties that I plant this is always the one that is ready to harvest first. That can be a good thing if you want an early harvest of potatoes, but it can also be a bit challenging when it comes to saving your own seed potatoes if you choose to do that because there is a longer period of time between when you harvest the potatoes and when you plant them in the ground the following spring. The fact that these potatoes ripen early also makes them not last as long in storage, so they might not be the best variety if you are growing a large amount of potatoes that you want to last you for a long time. For smaller backyard gardens, though, I think this is a great variety to consider, though and I love planting them because they are an old 19th century variety that has such a delicious flavor.

Tomatoes (Cherry and Grape Tomatoes)

Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry (19th Century)

According to William Woys Weaver, this tomato is the standard yellow cherry tomato that was grown in the 19th century. The name comes from the John Hartman and Daughters Seed Company where the seeds were sold. This tomato is a round, yellow tomato that must have been thought to look like a gooseberry when it was named. The flavor is more of a savory-tasting tomato rather than a sweeter tomato like some more modern varieties are.

Riesentraub (Mid 19th Century or Earlier)

I don't have any photos that I've taken of the Riesentraub tomatoes, but they are red grape tomatoes that have more of an oval shape than a round shape. They have done well for me in my garden the last couple of years that I have tried them, and they taste like a combination of savory and sweet to me. According to William Woys Weaver, the name Riesentraub is a German name that means "giant grape." And these tomatoes do look a bit like a cluster of grapes although the color and shape aren't really the same. This tomato has origins that aren't very clear, but it is a delicious tomato that I enjoy having in my garden.

Yellow Pear (1805 or Earlier)

Yellow Pear tomatoes win the prize for one of the cutest and most unique looking tomatoes. They look like miniature pears with a bright yellow color. To me they taste like more of a savory-flavored tomato rather than a sweet tomato, but the flavor is more mild than some tomato varieties. These little tomatoes are great to eat fresh off of the vine or to add to salads. The yellow pear was commonly grown in America in the 19th century, and there is also a red pear tomato variety as well.

Tomatoes (Full Sized)

Large Red (Early 19th Century)

The Large Red tomato dates back to a time before tomatoes became popular. This tomato is one of the few original tomato varieties that were common in America before the tomato became really popular and dozens of different varieties were developed. (In early America the tomato was grown mostly as an ornamental plant, and many people actually thought the tomato was poisonous. As the 19th century went on, though, more and more people started growing tomatoes for food, and the tomato's popularity really took off in the second half of the 1800s.) The Large Red tomato was also used later on in the 19th century for developing other newer tomato varieties.

This tomato is unique looking with its deep ribbing around the tomato. It's also not really as large as its name make it sound. It's a full-sized tomato, but even though it might have been considered large by 19th century standards it wouldn't be considered large by modern-day standards. It's more of a medium-sized tomato. This tomato was originally used as a cooking tomato for sauces, ketchups, etc. rather than meant to be eaten fresh, but I eat this tomato fresh all the time and find it to be a pretty good tomato for fresh eating. The texture may be a bit better suited for cooking, but the flavor is that classic acidic tomato tang, and I like the fact that this tomato could work for both cooking and fresh eating.

Trophy (1870)

This tomato was introduced by Colonel George E. Waring, Jr. who sold seeds for this tomato for $5 a packet. That's even more money than some packets of seeds cost today (depending on what seeds you are getting and where you buy them, of course), but I can only imagine how expensive $5 a packet must have seemed back in the 1870s! I've read that there was a $100 prize that tomato growers could win if they grew the largest Trophy tomato, but I'm sure there must have been many people who paid the high price for the seed packet and never ended up winning the prize. Thankfully the Trophy tomato isn't as exorbitantly priced now as it was back in the 19th century.

The Trophy tomato is a classic red, round tomato with a classic tomato taste. This variety is one that was used to help to create several other newer varieties of tomatoes when the tomato was really growing in popularity.

Garden Peach (1862)

The Garden Peach (sometimes also called Yellow Peach) tomato really does look a bit like a peach with it's yellowish color and slight blush on one side, and the skin even has a slightly fuzzy texture, too. It's not nearly as fuzzy as a peach's skin is, but it's just enough to help with the illusion. I wish I had taken a picture of this tomato in my garden, but I didn't see any pictures when I looked back through some of my photos. If you look it up online, though, you can see pictures of this tomato. The flavor doesn't actually taste like peach, but it is more of a sweet and slightly fruity tomato rather than an acidic and savory tasting tomato. It's a unique tomato flavor that I really enjoy. The Garden Peach seeds that I liked growing the best and that had the best flavor in my opinion were the ones I tried from Victory Seeds.

Winter Squash

Delicata (Introduced in 1894)

Delicata is a winter squash variety that usually fairly easy to find at farm stands and even at some grocery stores now, so it's one heirloom vegetable that you can try out first to see if you like it before you decide to grow it yourself. I love this variety because it's easy to cut open (unlike some other winter squashes), and the flavor is sweet with a nice smooth texture. I really like the fact that the Delicata squash doesn't have the stringy texture that some other winter squash varieties have. (Note: If you want to plant the 1890s version you would need to use seeds for the original Delicata variety not the newer Honey Boat Delicata.)

I ended up having a volunteer Delicata plant growing in my garden last summer (pictured above), and I'm not completely sure whether it was the original 1894 Delicata or the newer Honey Boat variety. The volunteer squash plant was growing out of a pile of chicken manure compost, and I don't know which variety the original seed came from, but either way it ended up being a delicious squash. I'm hoping to grow some squash plants from the original 1894 Delicata seed this coming year unless I get any more volunteer plants from my chickens!

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The information in this post is not to be taken as medical advice and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.