Welcome to 2019. My smile might wrap the entire planet as I delve into New Year’s resolutions — with a focus on gardening, of course. Feeling blessed to snag a few hard-to-find seeds this late in the game, I find myself planning a plot full of revival, simple joys and deliciousness.

Revival. One of the healthiest measures we can think of in our family to let go and create anew is to return to what once was, with special attention of making it our own. In the healing world, "revival" is what we call the time where we cherish the past, keep sacred our relationship with origin and destination, and consciously carve our intention into actions and beliefs that create each moment. Heirloom selections in the garden are a wonderful way to personify revival.

Cherokee carbon. In some ways, exchanging a variety of tomatoes in the garden is harder than letting my grown boys move out on their own. With tomatoes in every meal all season long, I hesitate to give up a good thing. Going with the safe bet this season, Cherokee carbon promises the same rich flavor of our trusted Cherokee purple pick but offers more fruit on the vine for a bit longer season. Cherokee purple's documented history is rather recent, actually, and tells a tale of cherishing the variety locally in the hills of Tennessee for more than a century as a gift of gratitude from the Cherokee nation exchanged in the mid 1800s. A single handwritten note and internet capabilities posted the flavorful black tomato seeds available through Seed Saver Exchange for the first time publicly circa 1990.

Cornell University’s five-star approval in their heirloom tomato taste testing might have a bit to do with how the carbon variety made the cut for breeding a new black tomato. With a mid-season harvest of 75 days, carbon is considered a slicer tomato with fruits ranging from 8 to 12 ounces at maturity. In the beefsteak category, the plump, tasty Cherokee purple tomato is a 10- to 12-ounce fruit with a deeper purple color and rich flavor. With similar traits, Cherokee carbon produces plants up to 7 feet tall with considerably more fruit per plant than either of its parents and weighs in at 12 to 15 ounces.

Moon and stars watermelon. There is some risk in returning to roots. In the age of artificial everything, it’s sometimes difficult to recognize genuine. As tomatoes get redder and apples get crispier, it’s hard to believe some rare specimen are genuinely heirlooms. I remember the first time my sister looked at moon and stars in our community garden. Her response was a mix between intrigue and dismay, wondering what type of something or other was injected to get it "to do that." Originally called sun, moon and stars when the Peter Henderson & Company listed it in a 1926 catalog, I had a blast reading the listing recently in a historic museum on page 47 of the publication.

“This new watermelon, named by its originator 'Sun, Moon and Stars,' is a conspicuous instance of variation. The circles and stars imprinted on its rind are certainly an extraordinary variation from the usual type. We do not, however, offer seeds of this melon to our friends because of its appearance, but for the reason that its ‘meat’ has such a delicious taste, and because this variety can be successfully grown in most part of the United States. It is of medium size and just about right for private use. Price, 20C pkt., 3 pkts, for 50C $1.00 oz."

While enjoying the easy read, I was informed that the variety was near extinct for a couple of decades until the Amish introduced its close relative with yellow flesh. The fruit of this melon has quite a wide range, with some fruit maturing at only 2 pounds when others on the same vine get up to 50 pounds. Though outrageous in appearance, you can trust this is an heirloom variety that is now readily available from most seed suppliers.

Pollinating. Certain seed companies are striving with family-farmed passion and several generations of dedication to open-pollinate hybrids in the vegetable garden. As I visit trade show booths and listen to webinars throughout the year, I realize that many breeders are just like you and me, except they have a commitment to hand-pollinating squash blooms or are massive land owners with an isolated patch of sweet corn ready to chart, explore and share a craving for juicier kernels, taller stand or bigger ears of corn on each stalk. In Illinois soil, it is sometimes hard to believe there is anything but amazingly sweet, sweet corn to eat. However, if you’ve ever seen a sweet corn field in the Dominican Republic, you know all corn is not grown equally!

New mama sweet corn. Though not an heirloom at all, biodiverse breeder Adaptive Seeds out of Oregon State successfully open-pollinated a super sweet medium-large sweet corn variety by crossing white sugar with a Swiss breeder’s early yellow sweet corn. Maturing in as little as 80 days, new mama has early maturity and a strong emergent rate in cooler soils with an amazing flavor to boot. As my boys fly the coop, I’ll gladly be new mama to some supersweet corn.

Simple joys. Taking tea in the garden. Moonlight walks along the creek. Daily romps in fresh clover cover crop. Whatever your idea of pleasure, work some elements into your garden plan this year to support a resolution that puts you in relationship with simplicity. Simple recipes like arugula greens doused in apple cider vinegar garnished with cucumber-flavored borage blossoms add explicit depth to the rewards of gardening. As I embrace my husband and our new life together, we chuckle a bit between the bursts of grief and discord in order to sprinkle our own private celebration of recognizing our return to simple joys.

Everlasting deliciousness. Some of you garden for glory. Fair picks of grandiose cabbage heads or 2-ton pumpkins propped on a pallet from the get-go. For us, 2019 trials will be side-by-side taste testing of proven cultivars with some of the lesser known or, dare I admit, smaller varieties that pack flavor above looks and size. Jury is still out now that I have an added opinion in the garden plan.

So! What are your most flavorful garden picks, and what have you compared to in your gardening history? Please share your deliciousness suggestions along with your trusted heirloom selections with me at gardenmaiden.com.

HOLLY KOSTER is a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener who resides in Grand Ridge. She can be reached by emailing tsloup@shawmedia.com; via Twitter, @gardenmaiden9; or on Facebook, facebook.com/gardenmaiden9.