Alice Formiga grew up in New York City, and earned her undergraduate degree in German and History at Bryn Mawr as well as a Master's degree in Foreign Language Education from NYU. She first fell in love with plants at the age of 20 when she took a summer job at an organic farm in Germany. Switching gears from a strictly academic career, Alice learned gardening as an apprentice on several organic vegetable farms in Germany, and earned a journeyman's certificate in horticulture there. On moving to California in the late '80s, she worked for Shepherd’s Garden Seeds for 5 years, first as a garden advisor in Felton, California and then as manager of Shepherd’s trial garden at White Flower Farm in Connecticut. In 1999, she returned to California for several years and was central in helping to design and plant the trial garden at Renee’s Garden. Alice has written for Kitchen Garden magazine and been featured in Yankee magazine.