Suzanne moves quickly around the house that’s been in her family for generations – like a hummingbird, she is constantly in motion. The kitchen has been updated in the past few years and is in every sense of the word, gourmet. Full of stainless steel and warmed up by Mexican tiles, she leans over to a special temperature mini-fridge and questions whether I’d like some of her homemade goat cheese, wine, or local artisanal chocolates? Suzanne happens to be a stalwart of the Sacramento food scene and has partnered with a local distributor and former chef, Jim Mills of Produce Express, to get her food into restaurants. Together they host restaurateurs on the farm to educate them about underutilized varieties of heirloom vegetables that usually don’t make it on menus – namely because they haven’t heard of them yet.

In addition to all that she grows, and markets to restaurants or through her CSA, she’s one of the few farmers I know of that grow and sell seed. Hyper-intelligent, Suzanne is an authority on the matter as she wrote the definitive book on seed saving. Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners (2nd edition, March 1, 2002), tells us exactly what seed companies don’t want us to know. From soaking and drying, to smoke treating and bruising, every seed has a story and a way to harvest and preserve. As a previous “seed curator” for Seed Savers Exchange, Suzanne generously gifted the rights of the book to the organization. Its coverage of 160 varieties has undoubtedly aided their members in exchanging “an estimated one million seed samples, from gardener to gardener, since the organization’s inception in 1975.”

Suzanne’s seed library — bursting with bean, mustard, squash, tomato, and every other imaginable legume, brassica, composite, cucurbita and solanum — is a loud reminder that what we plant now in spring/early summer could sow seed by fall if we let the plants get that far. Seed to save and seed to share. And while she’s buzzing around showing me her quail that she keeps for eggs, and introduces me to her goats, the farm at midday is soaked in light and moisture from the river nearby. A train horn sounds its way along the river, and Suzanne has got it all figured out – she’s successful and loves what she does. While I don’t figure out the secret of her energy while I’m there, it gives me a reason to visit again, for some seeds and some inspiration from Del Rio Botanical.