7 Unique Heirloom Seeds to Grow in 2022
White tomatoes, purple peppers, giant squash! Each year, we pick out some fun, new (to us!), and unique heirloom seeds to grow in our garden. As seed savers, we have a growing seed collection of our favorite vegetable varieties, from rare heirlooms to brand new open pollinated varieties. The past year was one of our best garden seasons ever, and these are 7 of our favorite unique heirloom seeds we grew in our gardens!
7 Unique Heirloom Seeds to Try
- Amish Pie Squash
- Buena Mulata Hot Pepper
- Great White Tomato
- Red of Florence Onion
- Delice de la Table Melon
- Queen of Malincalo Tomatillo
- Marvel of Venice Pole Bean
Find our 7 favorite heirlooms from 2020 here! Last year’s list included Jarrahdale Pumpkin, Purple Podded Snow Pea, Pattison Strie Melange Squash, Violet Jasper Tomato, Mini Bell Pepper, Golden King of Siberia Tomato and the up and coming heirloom, Black Beauty Tomato.
You can find our top 7 unique heirloom varieties from 2019 here! Our picks included Black Nebula Carrot, Costoluto Genovese Tomato, Carouby De Maussane Snow Pea, Hulless Pumpkin, Forellenschlauss Lettuce, Mangel Beet and Costata Romanesco Zucchini.
#1 Amish Pie Squash
Not only did an Amish Pie Squash win the honors this year as our biggest winter squash (38lbs in our short, 3 month growing season, beating other giants like Big Max), but family members also agreed it was the best tasting variety we grew. Out of 20 different winter squash in our patch, winning the best tasting title is something! In longer growing seasons, this massive squash can reach an enormous 60-80lbs (no, that is not a typo!).
The rich, orange meat from Amish Pie is thick and dense, with a small seed cavity, meaning you get more squash from your squash. While we normally like a little real maple syrup or coconut sugar on squash, Amish Pie was delicious with nothing but a pat of butter. In fact, one of us may have been caught eating it cold out of the fridge for breakfast… True to its name, it also made beautiful orange pumpkin pies.
These unique heirloom seeds were a winner in our 2021 garden, and will definitely earn a spot in the garden for this year and beyond!
You can find seeds for Amish Pie Squash at the Seed Savers Exchange.
#2 Buena Mulata Hot Pepper
A unique purple hot pepper, Buena Mulata did well in our cold climate garden this year. Gardening in a short season cold pocket area, we struggle to grow peppers outside of the greenhouse, so just producing in our garden is saying something for a pepper! Buena Mulata starts off purple and ripens to orange and then to red if left on the plant.
We picked a combination of purple, orange and red, and combined them with Black Nebula carrots and garlic for a delicious dark purple hot sauce. You can find our easy fermented hot sauce recipe here!
Baker Creek offers seeds for this unique heirloom pepper!
#3 Great White Tomato
This one definitely fits the bill for unique heirloom seeds. Since we usually stick with smaller, faster maturing tomatoes, Great White was the largest we grew this year, with some tomatoes exceeding a pound. As far as we can tell, the tomatoes that got sunlight were more yellow in color, while the fruits grown in shade were more white.
Baker Creek describes Great White as “The flesh is so good and deliciously fruity, it reminds one of a mixture of fresh-cut pineapple, melon and guava. One of our favorite fresh-eating tomatoes! “. We thought the low acid fruit was rather bland and better in sauce than for fresh eating, but we also let the tomatoes sit on the counter for a few days before cutting into one. Next year we’ll try eating one straight off the vine to see if the flavor improves!
With only 75 days to maturity, Great White has numerous reviews for being highly productive. We’ll definitely be growing it again in our garden!
Find seeds for Great White here!
#4 Red of Florence Onion
This unique heirloom onion from Tuscany, Italy is elongated for more uniform slices. Started from seed, the onions were enormous in our garden, reaching 5-7″ in length and over a pound in weight.
Although catalogs describe the flavor as mild, we thought they had more heat than the other four varieties we grew. They definitely could win a prize for good flavor. We really enjoyed the raw onions sliced in coleslaw and on burgers!
Red of Florence is a long-day type best for Northern latitudes.
Find seeds for Red of Florence here!
#5 Delice de la Table Melon
Number 5 on our list of unique heirloom seeds is Delice de la. Getting melons to ripen in our short season area is a challenge, so finding a variety that does is saying something! Delice de la wasn’t as productive as Hales or Jenny Lind, but the aroma and flavor were indescribable!
This delightful French dessert melon reached about 2lbs in our 90 day season, covered with plastic the last three weeks. The flesh is light orange, both sweet and highly flavorful.
We’ll definitely be growing this one again and again!
Find seeds here at the Seed Savers Exchange.
#6 Queen of Malincalo Tomatillo
Whether you like tomatillos or not, you’ll probably like Queen of Malincalo. This sweet, fruity tomatillo is reminiscent of a sweet pepper, and is delicious fresh in salads or on tacos. It makes the best sweet salsa verde!
What I dislike the most about tomatillos is how labor intensive they are to pick and to peel, but Queen is double the size of the green and purple varieties I grow, with the largest fruits reaching 4″ in length! The large size makes it way more worth the trouble for me! My two year old likes to be busy with her hands, so this year I put a bowl of these in front of her and she willingly went right to work peeling tomatillos.
Baker Creek no longer offers these unique heirloom seeds, but you can still find them here at Renaissance Farms.
#7 Marvel of Venice Pole Bean
Last but definitely not least for this year’s unique heirloom seeds is Marvel. Marvel of Venice was the most productive of 8 heirloom pole beans we grew this year. The large, flat pods are buttery with a good snap and a hearty, filling flavor. They start off green, but ripen to pale yellow. If the pods turn white, they are overdone and are better left on the plant to produce next year’s seeds.
With 65 days to maturity, its one of the faster maturing pole types available.
I’m going to be planting a whole row of these beautiful pole beans this year!
You can find seeds for Marvel of Venice from Baker Creek.
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