There used to be one hundred thousand varieties of rice grown around the world, a landscape of flavors and textures and subspecies that could thrive in all kinds of microclimates and types of soil.One of the casualties of our modern industrial food system is that big businesses grow huge quantities of a limited number of plant varieties, usually subspecies that ship well, have long shelf lives, or are easy to harvest with machines. As a result, traditional varieties of all kinds of plants are growing extinct.
Enter the farmers' market, the ideal venue for innovative producers to revive forgotten heirloom seeds. Market shoppers tend to value flavor over convenience, and they love to try new (old) things.
During the twelve years that I've been vending at markets I've seen a tremendous growth in the available varieties of different fruits and vegetables. One farmer will experiment with something which catches on, and before you know it everyone is growing some obscure variety of zucchini or cauliflower.
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