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Home of Lezlie's Seeds

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I became interested in and began working with tomato varieties when we planted a garden literally 100% full of pink Brandywines, the seeds coming  from Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland. One plant came up different. It had small pink saladette tomatoes, hence it's name, with great flavor and creamy texture, just like a larger Brandywine. I was so enthralled, I saved the seed. It came true from seed the following year and has every year since. This is my pet seed project.

I then began collecting books on vegetable breeding, and I loved Livingston's account of his work with tomatoes. I have followed his methods when selecting my plants and seeds, and it has worked for me. I also rely on Carol Depp's book, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties.

We began growing, every year, 2 shapes of red, 100% Italian tomatoes with open-pollinated seed from Italy via Australia in 1997. A number of years ago I planted the last of my original seed from 1997, and one plant came up an obvious cross of the two. I kept seed only from the very best single fruit on the plant. Planting that seed, I selected one offspring that had perfect fruits as the foundation plant. Today, Surprise is a beautiful, round-fruited tomato, with firm red flesh.

I introduced red Currant tomatoes into our garden one year, and we got Mt Hood Cherry from those genes. Mt Hood came up in a patch of red currants, although obviously quite different from them, as I noticed the plant right away and began to watch it. It is larger fruited and a deeper red than currant tomatoes, but a beautiful plant with absolutely gorgeous leaves. Very vigorous and productive, it needs to be caged.  It has come true every single year, ever since.

I also saved seed from a sort of triangular fruited tomato in our garden that we believe to have been Stupice, and from that we got our pear and plum tomato lines, crossed with Principe Borghese and Yellow Pear. Siskiyou Plum has good, sprightly flavor, with green seed gel, and the Teton pear is a sweet one with meaty texture, larger than the regular red pear. Siskiyou is very productive with many clusters of 5 fruits and is great for fresh salsa. Teton Pear does have some susceptibility to blossom end rot.

I have no formal education in biology, plant science, or anything to do with commercial agriculture and farming. My interest in agriculture and farming have been life long, and I am self-educated. I swear it is in the bones, in your genes, whatever, as my ancestors were farmers. I am also a published Certified Master Gardener through the Cooperative Extension Service of U.C. Davis. I write the various gardening/growing booklets for our county. I find working with seeds and maintaining rare varieties extremely rewarding. There is no miracle greater than germination and seeing that seedling heave itself out of the soil anew each Spring. I love gardening!

About Me

Hello, my name is Lezlie and I am from Northern California. I have been gardening all my life, and it continues to interest me like no other hobby. The miracle of seeds sprouting into bountiful plants fascinates me anew, each year. I drool over seed catalogues. I planted my first seeds at 3 with my mother, and I began growing my own veggies before 13.

I'm 47 years old, a mother of three grown children, and grandma to a toddler granddaughter. I have a fat, crazy young girl cat, Missy. I also enjoy handspinning and quilting, cheesemaking, sewing cloth dolls, making ribbon flowers, knitting, and other hobbies, although I have little time for them, these days.

I am an avid sheller, and so far have brought home over 60 pounds of lovely shells from the famous beaches of the Gulf barrier islands in SW Florida, for home decoration. In October 2004 I was lucky enough to find a red Lion's Paw shell, after 5 years of scouring miles of beaches. I am having the shell framed.

We are fairly politically correct when it comes to food, pesticide-free vegetables, free-farmed milk and organic corn-fed meat, certified by the Humane Society, free-trade and embargo protesting  coffees, and we support various liberal causes and groups. I guess we're pretty typical for the region.