Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s historic home in Virginia, grows vintage veggies and saves seeds for the future.

We have a need to preserve the past for the future,” says Peter Hatch. “Sharing it through plants keeps it alive. It also tells us about Thomas Jefferson’s world.”

Hatch is Director of Gardens and Grounds at Monticello, Jefferson’s home in Charlottesville, Va. Although all plants in his 1,000-foot long vegetable garden are heirlooms today, not all were originally in the garden. Some of the 330 varieties Jefferson documented growing are only memories in his journals, lost forever.

While many of the vegetables go to tables, not all do. Some go to seed. Monticello’s gardeners carefully collect, label and store seeds to keep old cultivars alive. The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants sells about 25,000 packets of them annually. They are vastly different than popular varieties today.

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