From farm to table, a link to the past

These heirloom vegetables are being showcased through next weekend during Heirloom Harvest Week, so they should be easy to find. Restaurants in Boston, Providence, and Portsmouth, N.H., are featuring dishes made with rare varieties of produce, some originally grown in this region almost two centuries ago.

The event is part of a larger program called RAFT Grow-Out. RAFT, which stands for Renewing America’s Food Traditions, is affiliated with Slow Food USA and made up of many smaller organizations dedicated to what RAFT calls the “save it by eating it’’ paradigm. The Grow-Out, held for the first time, provides farmers with donated heirloom seeds and connects them to chefs who create menus based around the crops. Boston-based nonprofit Chefs Collaborative is the RAFT partner working with this event. Participating restaurants include Henrietta’s Table and Hungry Mother, both in Cambridge, and Tastings Wine Bar and Bistro in Foxborough.

Renewed interest in heirloom foods stems from a variety of factors. Some chefs like the taste of antiquated squash, others want to preserve crop diversity as a matter of food security.

Chef and owner Evan Mallett of Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth, N.H., prefers heirlooms to many items available today. “We’re losing these [heirloom] products and their uniqueness in exchange for bright colors and things that look good in supermarkets,’’ he says.

Mallett says the Jimmy Nardello pepper is “probably the sweetest, most delicious pepper I’ve ever eaten raw, and put it in a hot pan in the oven and it concentrates that sweetness and peels pretty easily.’’

Richard Garcia of Tastings Wine Bar is a fan of the Siberian sweet watermelon, which he pairs with an in-house cured yellowfin tuna, feta, and herbs from the restaurant’s rooftop garden. “The watermelon is unreal,’’ says the Foxborough chef. “The flavor is unlike anything you’ve ever tried. It’s like somebody took the best honey out there and injected it in. It’s probably what watermelon tasted like 100 years ago.’’

During Heirloom Harvest Week, Garcia will be serving a flan made from the hulking, salmon-colored Boston Marrow squash, first introduced to the public at Faneuil Hall in 1831.

For Tim Wiechmann of T.W. Food, choosing the right heirloom was simple. “I picked the Sibley squash, originally grown in Marblehead, which is the town I’m from,’’ he says. Wiechmann describes the Sibley as “a small squash that’s very dense and very floral in its perfume.’’ He serves it in a bisque with roasted shallots and vanilla whipped cream.

Other RAFT Grow-Out veggies include Boothby’s Blonde cucumber, Forellenschuss lettuce, early blood-rooted turnip beet, and the student parsnip. For some, these names might add an extra draw. But Mallett, the Portsmouth chef, thinks that the odd names could keep these items from becoming commonplace. “No one’s going to say ‘Honey, could you go out and buy some eggs, milk, and early blood-rooted turnip beets?’ ’’

Besides flavor and nomenclature, the RAFT project holds a specific allure for growers who are not otherwise able to dabble.

“It gives farmers the security to try new varieties and to have a secure market in the chefs,’’ says Sarah Tracey of Dharma Harvest, an educational farm in Harvard. That was especially appreciated in the abnormally cold, wet weather this growing season. Tracey lost her chickens to a raid by a hungry fisher cat, which her assistant described as having “sucked the whole flock dry.’’

Some farmers did note that the hardier, more adaptive heirloom varieties fared better in the difficult conditions.

“Some of these plants are really adapted to New England because they’ve been here for 300 years,’’ says Jim Harkins of Heritage Farm in Portsmouth, R.I. “This was the rainiest season on record but there may be some genetics in there that help them deal with that.’’

Planting heirlooms provides a direct link with our agricultural ancestors, Harkins says. “There’s a connection to the people who have been growing those seeds out over the years. When you start saving your own seeds, you become an active participant in that,’’ he says.

Allandale Farm’s Jim Buckle was grateful for the change of pace. “It was fun. We got to grow all kinds of crazy stuff,’’ says the Brookline farmer. “We grow enough green peppers.’’

For the full list of restaurants participating in Heirloom Harvest Week, go to www.chefscollaborative.org.