heritage Chickens, Heirloom Vegetables - A Question

To the best of my knowledge the terms "Heritage" and "Heirloom" as they relate to foods are simply not used in Europe. Willl appreciate input as to preisely what those terms refer?

Thanks
Rogov

Daniel-
In our locale, those terms mean about an additional $1.19/lb. at the cash register.
'Winger

Old varieties of the product in question. I.E. not a new strain of tomato or a new breed of chicken designed in a laboratory to withstand travel and supermarket shelves.

The terms are advertising. You pay 30% more for skinny chickens and lumpy tomatoes.
John

[Jenise]

Daniel, we did see "heirloom" tomatoes in Provence last fall, so the term is in use or spreading. Typically it means from old seed, varieties that fell out of favor or were never in favor for commercial production because they're smaller/different/lower yield. You get a better sense of that looking through seed catalogs than you do actually shopping for groceries.

Personally, I don't buy heritage or heirloom chickens. I do buy organic, free range, grown locally, because they have smaller breasts. I really cannot detect any difference in taste. The prices asked for heritage chickens, plus all the fancy Kobe steaks types of meat are outrageous. One year, one of our sons gave us some fancy, expensive steaks, and we thought our local meat shop had better quality. That was before Costco. When we get to Costco, I always buy their meat because I feel it is excellent, but we do not make a special trip. Now, the heirloom veggies is another story. I can taste the difference in taste, but most are not good producers, especially tomatoes, and do not hold up well in travel or storage. I grow heirlooms but was told by a tomato expert that if I get 4 to 6 brandywines off the vine, I've done well. This same theory applies to other heirloom tomatoes. I have experienced heirloom vegetables to be more difficult to grow, probably my fault, maybe I fuss over them too much.

I think once again people are reaching conclusions based on the wrong examples. Just because there is a lot of marketing junk out there using the words heirloom and heritage does not mean that the concepts are not valid and superior when done correctly. It is always about finding the right 1% of product.

Thanks for all of the explanations and editorial comments. Throughout the Mediterranean Basin what that translates to is what is known in Arabic as baladi products* and refers to fruits, vegetables and livestock raised indeed in the "old way" and in fact most often organic. Those products are most often found in small villages where they are raised and in the shuks or markets of whatever large city to which they make their way.

The interesting thing about all of this is this is not a new culinary movement. Nor is it an attempt to be "good to the environment". Baladi products invariably come from that segment of the peasant population that do not have the means to use artificial fertilizers, to purchase newer strains of seeds, of even to water their crops. And that either because they are too poor to do so or because the political situation in their country of residence will not give them the same subsidies and aid that other, wealther, more "politically acceptable" members of the population may receive.

In the end, it turns out that this is good for the peasants and good for food lovers, for fine baladi products, which are sought out by fine chefs and by those who care about what they cook and later ingest in their homes and do now bring in top dollar (or shekel, drachma, lira, pound, etc). No Slow Food movement required. The process is a completely natural one and you will find it on the island of Corfu, in the spice bazaar in Istanbul, as well as in the open air shuks of the cities of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Best
Rogov


*Like many words in Arabic and Hebrew, baladi has multiple meanings, those including "of the land", "of the folk", and "homeland". The Palestinian national anthem is entitled "Baladi, Baladi".

[Robin Garr]

I think once again people are reaching conclusions based on the wrong examples. Just because there is a lot of marketing junk out there using the words heirloom and heritage does not mean that the concepts are not valid and superior when done correctly. It is always about finding the right 1% of product.

Exactly.

Just as 'traditional' or 'organic' doesn't guarantee you a better experience, a lot of heriloom products died out for a reason - they were superceded by newer better products.

There are some, of course that are still pretty good, but there are also some that aren't, so anything labelled as heirloom should be viewed with the same critical eye one should use for all other claims.

BTW, would an old time variety of rabbits be 'hareloom' rabbits?

Just as 'traditional' or 'organic' doesn't guarantee you a better experience, a lot of heriloom products died out for a reason - they were superceded by newer better products.

There are some, of course that are still pretty good, but there are also some that aren't, so anything labelled as heirloom should be viewed with the same critical eye one should use for all other claims.

BTW, would an old time variety of rabbits be 'hareloom' rabbits?

Nah, those would be just 'old gray hares'!

Just as 'traditional' or 'organic' doesn't guarantee you a better experience, a lot of heriloom products died out for a reason - they were superceded by newer better products.?

Quite true, but "newer better" isn't necessarily to do with taste. The Cornish Rock (the vast majority of American broilers, the Purdue type stuff) became dominant because it puts on weight fast in caged conditions, and it's I think easy to pluck. It does poorly in foraging situations, but is perfect for factory farming. I don't go looking for heritage breeds, but many of the better free-range producers use them, so I end up with them (and enjoy). How much the flavor differences is due to breed and how much nurture I don't know.

I do think as far as flavor that the heritage turkeys I've had were worlds ahead of the Broad Breast whites. Same for some heritage pork breeds. But part of the attraction (to me ) isn't necessarily that the Black Prince or Brandywine tastes better than the Big Boy hybrid, but that it is different. I like variety!

Heritage chickens just refer to the older standard varieties. Some of these varieties are quite rare. The heavy varieties will have nice sized breasts and be quite meaty. One of the main differences is that they do not have the great food conversion abilities nor rate of growth that the newer hybrids have. While their breasts may not be huge the heavys have good sized breasts. Look online for Murray McMurray and you can find pictures and descriptions of many of the varieties. There are even smaller hatcheries that have even rarer varieties.

Having a slower rate of growth the older varieties can do well on a lower protein ration. IMHO the meat has a better texture due to the length of time involved to get them to butcher weight. The newer hybrids require a high protein ration. If they are fed a lower protein ration they will have development problems such as twisted, stunted weak legs that will not hold them up.

I have always liked the older varieties because I could just feed them grain, weeds from the garden, kitchen scraps and what they could find if I let them out. The meat from chickens, turkeys and other poultry that have white meat readily take on flavors from what they eat. In the summer my chickens were fed lots of vegetable scraps from our meals and left overs from of our canning and freezing. They would devour any meat or fish scraps that were given. This served to raise the protein of their diet. Since I had a ready supply of cull apples during the season they were fed vast quantities of apples. The resulting eggs during that time had a slight apple flavor as did the white meat if they were butchered at that time. The flavors and texture of the meat is so different that I now seldom eat chicken. The typical chicken purchased in stores just doesn't compare.

If you wished to raise your own chicken for meat it would be silly to purchase the hybrid varieties. You would have to purchase the high protein ration which is expensive to buy other than by the ton and the resulting meat would taste the same as the store bought meat.