There is nothing I love more than stepping into my kitchen garden and harvesting vibrant, flavorful produce to create meals that nourish both body and soul. Growing organic heirloom varieties allows me to connect to nature, honor ancestral gardening traditions, and savor the exceptional flavors that modern hybrids (and grocery store produce) simply cannot match. I’m sharing the best heirloom vegetables, herbs, and flowers for USDA hardiness zones 5b-8b, focusing on varieties that are easy to grow, packed with flavor, and versatile in the kitchen.

What Is an Heirloom Variety?

Heirloom varieties are time-honored plant cultivars passed down through generations, often treasured for their rich history, unique characteristics, and incredible taste. Unlike hybrid plants, heirlooms are open-pollinated, meaning they produce seeds that grow true to type year after year. You can harvest the seeds, plant them the following year and trust that the same genetic qualities of the plant will grow. When grown organically, these plants are cultivated without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, aligning with USDA organic standards. This ensures the health of the soil, the environment, and, ultimately, your family.

Top Organic Heirloom Varieties for Your Kitchen Garden

Tomatoes

Heirloom tomatoes are the crown jewels of the kitchen garden, bursting with flavor and vibrant colors. Come August and September, my kitchen counter becomes an altar to the tomato gods. My canning supplies come out and I spend my weekends making salsa, tomato sauce, bruschetta, caprese salad, or simply eating fresh slices of meaty heirlooms on garlic toast, the Spanish way.

• Brandywine

  • Why Grow It: This classic heirloom tomato boasts large, meaty fruits with a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity.

  • How to Use: Slice for sandwiches, chop into a Caprese salad, or simmer into a rich tomato sauce. Layer a meaty slice over cottage cheese or burrata on toast grated with garlic and olive oil drizzle for the perfect late summer snack.

• Black Krim

  • Why Grow It: Known for its smoky, slightly salty flavor, this deep purple tomato thrives in zones 5-7 with proper support and regular watering.

  • How to Use: Roast for soups, dice into salsa, or enjoy fresh with a drizzle of olive oil.

• San Marzano Roma

  • Why Grow It: San Marzano tomatoes are a prized heirloom variety from Italy, renowned for their sweet, low-acidity flesh and thick skin, making them ideal for sauces.

  • How to Use: Simmer into a rich marinara, slow roast for a deep, caramelized flavor, or can for winter use. These are a staple for making pizza and pasta sauces.

• Golden Jubilee Tomato

  • Why Grow It: This golden-yellow heirloom is sweet and low in acidity, making it ideal for those who prefer milder tomatoes. It’s also a prolific producer.

  • How to Use: Slice for fresh salads, pair with basil for a colorful Caprese, or can for a vibrant yellow sauce.
    
    

As our climate changes, it’s imperative that home and commercial landscapes in the West become drought tolerant while also supporting wildlife such as pollinators, birds, and animals. In this blog post, I’m sharing a list of trees, shrubs, flowering perennials, grasses and ground covers that are drought tolerant.

After learning that common hydration powder packets contain many ingredients (such as pure cane sugar as the primary ingredient) that negatively impact our health and hormones, I began scheming ways to make my own herbal electrolyte drink. I crafted this refreshing and nourishing cold-water botanical infusion that is loaded with minerals and electrolytes for hydration.

All-in-all I spend about 1 hour per week weeding, watering and fertilizing, plus another 1 hour per week harvesting, deadheading, and mowing around the perimeter. The rest of my garden-time consists of strolling the land in the morn’ and evenin’ with either a coffee or glass of wine in hand - depending on the time of day. Two hours of work per week is an amazing pay-off for such a large garden. How in the world is that possible? Allow me to dish the dirt on how I keep my 4,000 square foot garden, meadow, and orchard low maintenance.

Between two seasons is a great place to be. That’s where I am on this chilly Spring day, returning to myself in the greenhouse and letting the words bloom. To celebrate this verdant return, I’m up-potting an arrangement of narcissus, hyacinth, and tulips for the Easter table. Join me in the greenhouse, between two seasons, to celebrate this return. 

Whether we’re roaming the wild or walking through a garden, Fall is the season to harvest seeds. It’s a simple process, and like most tasks in the garden, quite meditative as well. It’s a favorite seasonal ritual of mine. Saving seeds is straight forward, but there is important background knowledge an experienced gardener should wield. Here’s a lesson answering all of your seed saving questions and providing you with my master gardener seed-saving tips.

During the week of the Fall Equinox each year you can find me in my kitchen chopping up spicy garden-grown vegetables and adding them to a large glass jar. I’m making fire cider in preparation for the oncoming cold and flu season. Fire Cider is a spicy cold and flu tonic that boosts immunity, improves digestion, and warms the body. Discover the benefits of fire cider, how to make fire cider, and how to use fire cider in this simple recipe.

Inspiration for summer seasonal living as shared by a woman rewilding herself and land through gardening, foraging, and wildcrafting.

This is no ordinary backyard filled with uniform shrubs, nor religiously mowed each Saturday afternoon before the broadcasted game. This is a place where the soil remains true and the plants shape-shift with the seasons. It is dry yet lush; windswept yet calming. It’s made to be lived in, to be wildcrafted with and to be engaged with in reciprocity . It’s also made to be an example to others of the miracles possible when we return to our roots. This is a landscape, rewild.

Welcome to my pit of despair. I say that with a cheeky grin and a bit of sarcasm, but not much. Full transparency: this patch is just one of many dreadfully hideous spots on this land. In an effort to dispel any myths about a perfect garden (or hence a perfect life) that I may have inadvertently construed through my blogging, I’m here to unearth the reality.

As this season of rising and restless energy matures into the bright season of vitality, I’m here with an update. Despite the hardships, there is still an abundance of beauty and good things that grow.

It’s seemed like a long time coming, but we’ve finally planted trees along our northern border. After considering and imagining countless trees and tall shrubs of all varieties, I elected to plant a dozen Green Giant Arborvitae trees. This hedge of trees is already transforming the feeling in our backyard and I can’t wait to watch them grow together in the coming years. After so many long days of toiling, moments like this make rewilding this land all worth it.

For many novice gardeners, knowing what to do in the garden throughout the year can be challenging As your faithful master gardener, I’m here to dispel the myth that gardening is only done in spring. To simplify your gardening to do list here’s a comprehensive list of what to do in the garden during each season.

Hope. There are few acts more full of hope than beginning a garden during a time of plague and warfare. The very act of sowing seeds is a courageous statement that tomorrow will bloom again. Holding this belief close to my heart I converted my dinner table into a potting bench for the day and got to work sowing seeds for my Spring garden.

The wheel of the year turns, we bend toward darkness, and the cross quarter festival of Samhain nears. At this distinct midway point between the Equinox and the Solstice, we are pulled into a descent, a subterranean journey. The Otherworld and the Unseen are close at hand; the veil is thin. Feasts are set for the ancestors, there is a place for them at the table. In this spirit, I am inspired to share pieces of my journey and experience in the interweaving realms of Ancestral Lineage Repair and Plants.

Learn how to install a native wildflower meadow and enjoy the progress updates over the course of a 6 month period.

Installing a regenerative orchard is a process that requires a foundation of knowledge. It would be foolhardy to plant any ol’e fruit tree in any ol’e patch of land, so I’m sharing some of my best master gardener tips to help you learn how to plant fruit trees.

Every piece of land holds innumerable stories. When we breathe deep and quiet our minds the language traverses into our bodies like gently moving mist. It’s delivered in a language only our bodies can speak. It is my desire for the knowing of such stories that leads me back into these misty mountains time and time again to the land that has cradled me since I was a babe.

One of the most powerful things we can do as gardeners and eco-minded citizens is to actively steward the creation of soil-regenerative land that invites high biodiversity and traps carbon from the atmosphere. How do we do that? Enter cover crops. In this informative post I’m teaching you all about cover crops, their many benefits, and how you can incorporate these wonder-plants into your garden.

Our latest project in our backyard consisted of installing a hügelkultur privacy berm along the perimeter of our property. There are many benefits a berm offers within the context of regenerative gardening and beautiful landscaping. I’m excited to share my latest project with you in hopes that it can inspire a greater understanding of garden ecology while showcasing that earth-healing practices can be implemented while creating a beautiful landscape.