hi friends, colleagues, customers!

I’m monika sziron torzewski. After years of working for private companies, I decided to launch ribizli seed company in 2024 after a bad work day that left me feeling totally drained. I had been seed saving and growing for years and had always wanted to start a business that would let me be outside all day.

i grew up in the midwest as a hungarian-american, i spoke hungarian at home and english at school. for a long time i leaned away from my roots to try and fit in, often embarrassed because midwesterners couldn’t pronounce my last name that had ‘a lot of consonants.’ as an adult, i began leaning back into my roots, embracing my unique name, and started missing a lot of things from hungary almost daily.

I started ribizli for that reason, to pay hommage to my heritage while curating a seed catalog and supply of dried goods that blend hungarian and american staples. ‘ribizli’ means currant in hungarian, a common berry found in their juices, jams, and other products. currants are a berry that often grow exceptionally well in the midwest climate but are rarely found in the typical midwestern garden. and that kind of feels like me, growing up in the in the midwest but a rare when it comes to finding hungarian heritage here.

If you follow me on any social channels, you will likely hear me speaking hungarian to my son as we do garden chores and you can follow along on our trips to hungary when I source seeds, product ideas, and other goods.

thanks for reading this or köszönöm, hogy elolvastad!