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**carolyn137** · January 1, 2014

I've known Linda Sapp, who owns TGS, since about 1990 and she's one of the most honest persons in the commercial business that I know of.

Originally she and her husband Vince, a lawyer, ran the company, in his spare time he'd read here and elsewhere looking for new interesting varieties, and they always were SSE members as well.

One day she was at her desk in the building where TGS is located, and got a kind of mumbled call from Vince, raced to his office elsewhere and found him slumped over in his chair and he had already passed away of a heart attack.

It was really rough for her to keep going after that, but she did and continues to do so.

We had a great phone chat last week, you know, tomato gossip and all that, as we do from time to time. I'd called to ask for a couple of copies of the catalog, as I do every year, just for reference. I'm one who cannot stand to look at websites. And when she said she finally decided to sell the carton of my books at the original price, I posted that here since there are only 12 copies/carton.

All of which reminds me to get some seeds of a few varieties together to send to her for trial, as I do every year.Perhaps this post is out of line, I hope not, but knowing Linda for all these years I just wanted to comment about what a wonderful woman she is, and yes, she does speak with a slight southern accent, since she was raised in the southm but not in FL.

Carolyn, who notes that in the tomato seed business the only two others she's known longer than Linda are Glenn Drowns of Sandhill Preservation and Jeff MCCormack, who use to own SESE but sold it and now owns Garden Medicinals. All three should be models for others in the seed business as I see it. And indeed there are a few commercial sites out there now that IMO hold to the same ethics that she and Glenn and Jeff hold to. I should also add Glecklers to the way back list since I knew Adam's father
before he stopped his catalog so I was glad to see Adam take over, but it's been hard for him since he works full time for the family concrete business.

January 1, 2014	#44
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	I've known Linda Sapp, who owns TGS, since about 1990 and she's one of the most honest persons in the commercial business that I know of. Originally she and her husband Vince, a lawyer, ran the company, in his spare time he'd read here and elsewhere looking for new interesting varieties, and they always were SSE members as well. One day she was at her desk in the building where TGS is located, and got a kind of mumbled call from Vince, raced to his office elsewhere and found him slumped over in his chair and he had already passed away of a heart attack. It was really rough for her to keep going after that, but she did and continues to do so. We had a great phone chat last week, you know, tomato gossip and all that, as we do from time to time. I'd called to ask for a couple of copies of the catalog, as I do every year, just for reference. I'm one who cannot stand to look at websites. And when she said she finally decided to sell the carton of my books at the original price, I posted that here since there are only 12 copies/carton. All of which reminds me to get some seeds of a few varieties together to send to her for trial, as I do every year.Perhaps this post is out of line, I hope not, but knowing Linda for all these years I just wanted to comment about what a wonderful woman she is, and yes, she does speak with a slight southern accent, since she was raised in the southm but not in FL. Carolyn, who notes that in the tomato seed business the only two others she's known longer than Linda are Glenn Drowns of Sandhill Preservation and Jeff MCCormack, who use to own SESE but sold it and now owns Garden Medicinals. All three should be models for others in the seed business as I see it. And indeed there are a few commercial sites out there now that IMO hold to the same ethics that she and Glenn and Jeff hold to. I should also add Glecklers to the way back list since I knew Adam's father before he stopped his catalog so I was glad to see Adam take over, but it's been hard for him since he works full time for the family concrete business. __________________ Carolyn