Heritage Crops
FOR a changing Climate
Climate uncertainty is affecting food production around the world and here in Canada.
Agricultural biodiversity holds the key to future food security
Crop biodiversity is in decline as conventional agriculture focuses on just a few plant species. Within these species, there can be thousands of varieties, the product of farmers and growers as they tested and adapted crops to suit their local climates and food systems over millennia. The gene pool of these plants provides options for a diverse food system and the potential for resilience in the face of changing climates.
Sadly, these heritage (or heirloom) varieties are being lost at an alarming rate, with estimates of up to 75% of them having disappeared over the past 100 years (Seeds of Diversity). Of the remaining varieties, only a very few are available from local seed companies. Our food system is becoming more dependent on fewer and fewer varieties, and this exposes us all to greater climate risks, poorer diets, and increasing food insecurity.
Diffuse Adaptation
One important way to build resilience and adaptation to change and to lower the risk of major crop failures and high food prices is to grow a diversity of varieties of a crop in a variety of ways and places. This “many-eggs-in-many-baskets” approach diffuses the risk to climate uncertainty and extremes, potentially engages many growers, fosters innovation and helps conserve crop biological diversity. In simple terms this approach can be called diffuse adaptation, and like an insurance plan spreads the risk, and encourages forward thinking.
Featured Blog Post:

Bean growing with pots, rocks, blocks, and bamboo amongst the Garry Oaks and wildflowers
MJJ and REJ, Brentwood Bay British Columbia Each year is an experiment in our garden as to what veggies to grow and when to start. Much depends on the weather. It can begin cool and wet but it usually quickly becomes hot and dry. We check the garden daily, observe...
Home grown food security
Extreme weather and unpredicatable climates threaten food security. Heritage varieties are an important part of our agricultural heritage and critical to future food sustainability. The rich genetic diversity held within heritage varieties is the product of thousands of years of plant breeding and seed saving by people around the world.
Potatoes for a Changing Climate
Potatoes are easy to grow and as such can be part of a strategy of locally grown, food security.
Learning from Northern Growers
Potatoes are easy to grow and as such can be part of a strategy of locally grown, food security.
Plant-Based Protein
Edible legumes are an important source of high-quality protein, especially in their dry form. Food self-sufficiency and sustainability are vital during this time of climate and weather extremes. Dried beans can be an excellent protein source easily grown at home. The Heritage Bean Project
Introducing the Heritage Bean Project: Grow your own protein
In collaboration with Seeds of Diversity, the Crop-Climate Project is starting a Heritage Beans: Diversity and Climate Change project. The objectives of this project are:
- to ensure that Canadian heritage bean and other suitable varieties are more widely known, available and grown.
- to test varieties under a wide rage of climates and cultural conditions and share this knowledge widely.
- to acquire, develop and share knowledge for each variety, including biological characteristics cultural practices and appropriate weather and climate attributes.

Recent Blog Posts
Potatoes In Northern Climates
Potatoes are an easy to grow staple for northern people and with rising temperatures and lengthening growing seasons have the potential to be a key element of food sustainability. We are investigating the practice of growing potatoes in difficult northern climates...
Good Mother Stallard: Beautiful and Bountiful
Pictures and words on websites are great for attracting attention and providing a bit of guidance to the choice of varieties. Perusing the well-known and highly reliable Rancho Gordo’s website (https://www.ranchogordo.com/collections/heirloom-beans ) from...
Annie Jackson Pole Bean: astounding yields
Richard J. Hebda and Tina Davies of Emmerdale Eden Farm There are so many bean varieties available from around the world, how does one choose what to grow? One criterion has to be the dry seed yield of the variety. Emmerdale Eden Farm of Summerside, Prince...
Marvellous Mayocoba: Many names, Many uses
Community markets are a great place to obtain interesting varieties of beans. My sister, Lucy Hebda, on a visit to Sayulita in Nayarit western Mexico, picked up a few seeds of a pretty yellowish bean called ‘Frijol de Peru’ and brought it for me to grow. According to...