LESLIE LAND

LAND--Leslie, 66, of Cushing, ME, and Pleasant Valley, NY, died August 10 due to complications from metastatic breast cancer. Champion of country cooking, ambitious gardener, and, in her own words, "the latest in a long line of garden advisers that stretches back, approximately, to Adam, who we can be sure was frequently asked about the niceties of apple culture." In her syndicated "Good Food" column, four books, scores of magazine articles, and 400 Garden Q&A columns for the New York Times, Leslie wrote about food and gardening with wit and authority. She cooked at Chez Panisse in the early 1970s, then decamped for rural Maine where she built a new life as a writer. Leslie published two cookbooks, "Reading Between the Recipes" and "The Modern Country Cook," was an editor at Yankee magazine, and co-wrote "The 3,000 Mile Garden," which became a PBS series. She also edited "1000 Gardening Questions and Answers," based on the New York Times column. Leslie leaves her husband, Bill Bakaitis, daughter Celia, granddaughter Ursula, sister Claudia, brother David, a niece, two nephews, and countless friends she inspired to love gardening, good food, and life.