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  • Mother Earth Gardener

    Annie’s Heirloom Seeds:   A MICHIGAN FAMILY BUSINESS

    Feb 13, 2018 4 minutes
    By John Sorstokke

    ‘CONTENDER’ IS A FAVORITE heirloom bush bean at Annie’s Heirloom Seeds, and Julie Slezak says the cultivar is her favorite bush bean too. That should come as no surprise, though, because Julie is the founder of Annie’s Heirloom Seeds.

    “‘Contender’ is my favorite because it’s got great yields and it has a really wonderful bean flavor,” Julie says. She runs Annie’s from her home in Hudsonville, Michigan, so it’s hard to separate Julie’s personal love of heirloom gardening from the business activities of Annie’s Heirloom Seeds. In fact, the company’s name is a tribute to her grandmother, Annie.

    Much of Julie’s initial gardening experience happened in an urban setting. While in graduate school, she planted flowers in the backyard

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