Dr. Mittleider

Jacob R. Mittleider was born in Blackfoot, Idaho. After completing formal schooling, he moved to California and concentrated on a scientific and practical study of agriculture. His primary interest was raising beautiful flowers and shrubbery, and in 1944 he founded Mitts Nursery, Inc., in Loma Linda, California. For 19 years his products sold widely and many millions of his flowers graced the homes and flower gardens of people from California to Maine.

Dr Mittleider invented eleven new varieties of carnations, which carry such intriguing names as Moon Moth, Firelight, and April Dawn. Franchise arrangements also produced these in Europe and South Africa. To speed delivery of his plants, he developed Magic Mitts, a new method of growing, packaging, and delivering plants and flowers through a nation-wide retail chain (eleven plants in a single five-ounce package). During these years he conquered weeds, harmful insects, and plant diseases and perfected The Mittleider Method, a technique for making soil produce near-perfect plants and flowers in budget-balancing abundance.

In 1963, Dr. Mittleider closed his successful nursery business and decided to live on his modest annuity so he could devote his remaining years to serving mankind in the field of scientific food production. He became an instructor in the Extension Faculty of Loma Linda University and a highly sought-after International Agricultural Consultant. In these capacities he has given extensive instruction and created 75 successful vegetable-gardening teaching and demonstration projects in many locations throughout the U. S. A. and Canada, as well as New Guinea, Fiji, Okinawa, the Philippines, Trinidad (West Indies), Mexico, Honduras, Guyana, and Africa. Of particular note, from 1989 to 1996, he conducted season-long gardening courses in Russia, established a permanent Agriculture department in a college there and taught hundreds of adult students from throughout the Commonwealth. He helped the Russion people increase their food crops from 4 (cabbage, potatoes, beets, and carrots) to 23. His gardening books have been translated into Russian, Japanese, and Spanish.

During the time he was teaching in the developing countries, Dr. Mittleider was honored with two Doctorate degrees - one from Florida Beacon College, and the other from Timirjazjiv University in Moscow, Russia (reputedly the most prestigious school in the Russian Commonwealth). Since 1996 Dr. Mittleider has been a consultant and instructor at two major gardening projects in the United States. He and his wife, Mildred, are currently living in Redlands, California.

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