Today's vegetables grow more quickly and efficiently than vegetables of old.
Usage notes: used after the noun it describes, as in the example
of old
Of the past. The entertainers of old all knew how to sing, dance, and act. Now a triple-threat like that is quite rare.
of old
Formerly, long since, at an earlier time, as in In days of old the whole town turned out to watch the parade. This somewhat archaic idiom dates from about 1400.
of ˈold
(formal or literary) in or since past times: in days of oldWe know him of old (= we have known him for a long time).