My day starts early, many times at 4:00 a.m. I always refer to it as “Lee’s Times”. Each morning for over thirty years I have written a letter a day. Some are sent to friends and family, while others go to strangers who have experienced a tragedy or a common person who did a wonderful thing to help another person. At the opposite extreme I have written to presidents and celebrities. The response letters from these individuals always come back on beautiful embossed parchment. The content of the letter though is no different than from the common person. Next on the daily schedule is to fill the bird feeders. There is one at each northern window of the house. We can watch them eat while we eat. Having planted over one hundred sixty trees of sixty different species, we attract a lot of birds. Now it is time for my real life to begin as the owner of a gift and home accessory business, plus shipping my Biblical Wreath Prints and Peaches and Past Times Cookbook each day.

Lee Totzke holds a Bachelor of Science degree in horticulture from Michigan State University and attended DuPage Horticultural School in Illinois, with a specialization in historic gardens. His family owned a successful fruit growing business in Southwestern Michigan and his early life on this farm was the inspiration for Peaches and Past Times Cookbook.