Remembering Grandma's garden

P Some seeds don't always produce quality blooms, fruit. .

By Deborah Donovan ~ Arlington Heights Daily Herald

WOODSTOCK, Ill. -- MaryAnn Underwood dedicates her life to seeds, which does not sound like such a small thing when you consider that they're the beginning of most plant life.

Underwood Gardens in Woodstock sells seeds to true believers -- people who think old-fashioned flowers, herbs and vegetables should continue to be grown.

Not only do people buy seeds from her Grandma's Garden catalog, but they also give her seeds.

For example, Mrs. Benson is a tomato grown by a woman of that name in Oswego.

"It's the first to ripen and has large yields from Mid-July to frost," Underwood said.

The tomatoes have old-time flavor and have no pest or disease problems.

This gem got into the mainstream when a neighbor of Mrs. Benson's sent Underwood some seeds.

"Mrs. Benson died the following year -- we would have missed it," Underwood said.

On the other hand, someone once gave her some seeds with the promise that they came from her grandmother's favorite flower.

Underwood and her daughter, Maren Olac, were underwhelmed by the resulting plants. They couldn't believe the unimpressive bloom had been the poor woman's favorite.

Nurtured in gardens

Only once has Underwood met a gardener who didn't want to share special plants. It was a basil that Underwood was interesting in testing.

"No, it's mine," he said.

Underwood's business, which has been around for about a decade, has been growing each succeeding year.

Underwood Gardens tests seeds, then has growers produce the best ones so there are enough to sell.

This year's hit was the cucamelon, which looks like a watermelon for a dollhouse and tastes like a cucumber.

"You can throw it in a salad whole like a cherry tomato," Underwood said.

If you say today's tomatoes don't taste like the ones from your grandmother's garden, Underwood agrees, and says they won't unless you have the varieties your grandmother grew.

She calls these heirloom or heritage varieties. That means people nurtured these flowers, herbs and vegetables and handed their seeds down over generations.

Modern hybrids are created when people deliberately cross plants, but their seeds are often sterile.

There is new interest in the heirloom varieties because many people are experiencing concerns about terrorism or genetic modification harming the food supply.

As Underwood tells her story, she was born in Brooklyn and began gardening on windowsills and fire escapes, using the tops of carrots and avocado pets.

By the time she was 5, her gardening urges led her parents to send her to Maine one summer to stay with an aunt and uncle who gardened.

Her uncle was a Mohawk, and Underwood says American Indians have been saving seeds for generations. Thus another seed saver was born.

Underwood started her company after she was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. Maren suggested that her mother list all the seeds she had saved over the decades as a project she could do during recuperation.

Voila, they had a catalog, and the seeds sold.

Underwood Gardens grows its seeds organically, and the company's office is an old horse barn updated with various green construction methods.

Some of the water for the company's greenhouse comes off the roof and is cleaned in a water-polishing wetland, then treated with ultraviolet light.

The gardens are not open to the public except for monthly classes offered during the summer.