Small green sprouts emerging from wet soil.
Photo: Andrew Zuckerman

The Heirloom Seeds You Should Plant This Season

By Aileen Kwun
May 30, 2020
1 minute read

With Memorial Day weekend behind us, summer has officially begun, and for many home-growers, this signifies the busiest few weeks yet of planting seeds for the harvest ahead. If you’re growing an edible garden, opt for heirloom seeds, which will yield more nutritious vegetables and fruits that are bound to taste better than the average, genetically modified grocery-store standard. The Oakland, California–based Kitazawa Seed Company, founded in 1917 by a Japanese American family, sells some of the best, and offers more than 500 seed varieties of dento yasai, traditional heirloom varieties of a diverse array of Asian vegetables used in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cuisines, to name just a few. Browse the extensive catalog to learn about all the delicious varieties, and pick up some recipes for dishes such as sunomono, a simple and refreshing cucumber salad, and kinpira gobo, a savory side of burdock root sautéed in sweet soy sauce.