Craig LeHoullier

Organization: Author, Plant Breeder

Location: , North Carolina USA

Biography

Craig LeHoullier, a native Rhode Islander, lives and gardens in Hendersonville, North Carolina with his wife, Susan, and small collection of cats and dogs. A chemist by education (PhD, Dartmouth College), he held a variety of positions in Pharmaceutical companies until finally retiring in 2011, allowing his parallel gardening obsession to more fully flourish. His love of gardening began very young, originating from walks through his grandfather’s garden and back yard efforts with his father. Craig’s focus on heirloom and other open pollinated varieties of tomatoes began when he joined the Seed Savers Exchange in 1986. Starting with family heirlooms, moving on to the search for and procurement of many old commercially developed varieties and now developing new, useful tomatoes for home gardeners, his collection numbers well over 5,000 types. Craig may be best known for being the lucky person to receive an unnamed purple tomato in 1990 that he named Cherokee Purple, now one of the better known and widely grown heirloom varieties, for which he is so grateful. Craig was approached by Storey Publishing to write his first book in 2012, culminating in the release of Epic Tomatoes in 2015; Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales followed a year later. The Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, conceived with his Australian friend Patrina Nuske-Small in 2005, has delivered, to date, over 145 new open pollinated dwarf tomatoes to the public. Craig sees more gardening, more breeding, and more books on the horizon, as there is always more to discover, learn, create and share. (Photo: Kip Dawkins). You can find his books here: www.craiglehoullier.com

OSSI Pledged Varieties by Craig LeHoullier

Aussie Drop
Tomato

Aussie Drop

Banana Toes
Tomato

Banana Toes

Barossa Fest
Tomato

Barossa Fest

Boronia
Tomato

Boronia

BrandyFred
Tomato

BrandyFred

Coorong Pink
Tomato

Coorong Pink

Dwarf Grinch
Tomato

Dwarf Grinch

Dwarf Numbat
Tomato

Dwarf Numbat

Dwarf Oriole tomato
Tomato

Dwarf Oriole

Iditarod Red
Tomato

Iditarod Red

Loxton Lad
Tomato

Loxton Lad

Loxton Lass
Tomato

Loxton Lass

Lucky Swirl
Tomato

Lucky Swirl

Mallee Rose
Tomato

Mallee Rose

Maralinga
Tomato

Maralinga

Perth Pride
Tomato

Perth Pride

Sarandipity
Tomato

Sarandipity

Tanunda Red
Tomato

Tanunda Red

TastyWine
Tomato

TastyWine

Uluru Ochre
Tomato

Uluru Ochre

Waratah
Tomato

Waratah

Waverley tomato
Tomato

Waverley

Wherokowhai
Tomato

Wherokowhai

Wilpena
Tomato

Wilpena

Yukon Quest
Tomato

Yukon Quest