Slideshow: Our favorite heirlooms and their perfect-match recipes

Beloved for their flavor, heirlooms also have do-it-yourself appeal: Generations of gardeners have created new breeds by saving and sowing seeds from the best fruit on their vines. Selected for flavor rather than hardiness, they are the crown jewels of summer.

Precise in their imperfections, heirlooms are beautiful to look at, but even better to eat (and, as you’ll see, to drink). Here are some of our favorites.