Historic Forestville is dedicated to the preservation of historical artifacts as well as "living artifacts," such as heirloom garden and crop varieties. Although we use it frequently, the term "heirloom" is a bit of a misnomer. According to Seed to Seed (Decorah, Iowa: Seed Saver Publications, 1991, p. 13), an "heirloom" is a variety that has been passed down from generation to generation over a period of about 150 years, rarely being commercially available. The historic seeds we grow at Historic Forestville were commercially available in the 1890s, but are still considered to be quite rare in today's garden seed market.

All plants grown at Historic Forestville are "open-pollinated." By definition, an open-pollinated plant is produced by crossing two parents from the same variety, which, in turn, produce offspring just like the parent plants. By contrast, modern-day hybrid plants (which gained favor after World War II) are the offspring of crossed parent varieties which are genetically different. Hybrid seeds cannot be saved from year to year—they are incapable of producing plants like the previous generation. They are more expensive to produce; hybrids sell for several times more than open-pollinated seeds. Because hybrid seeds are worthless for replanting, modern farmers and gardeners must return to the seed companies for new seeds every year. However, as a result of the development of hybrids, shoppers in a modern-day grocery store have many more vegetables to choose from than their 19th-century counterparts. In addition, because of better shipping and transportation, shoppers can get most kinds of vegetables, such sweet corn and tomatoes, throughout the year; something unheard of in the 1890s. The surviving open-pollinated varieties selected for the Meighen garden and field areas are based upon the original store stock seed packets, historical research and educated guesses. Although certain open-pollinated seeds have the same names as their counterparts a century ago, we often don't know how "true-to-form" these plants are until they are mature, when they can be compared to original sketches, engravings and descriptions. So far, we have had pretty good luck in recreating 1899 plants. About 50 percent of the garden vegetable varieties found in Historic Forestville's interpretive program were grown here a century ago.