There's no question that Georgia Bost was an exceptional woman. Known to many as the proprietor of Georgia's Farm to Market, Bost has passed away after an illness at 62 years of age.

“Her spirit lives on through us," husband Rick Bost said via the Georgia's website. "Her life-long passion for the Earth and God’s creations lives on through those she touched and with whom she shared her flowers, love of farming, gardening, cooking, singing, dancing and celebrating. Please carry on her mission.

"This would be her wish. Eat healthy today. And help others to live and eat healthy while protecting the world for future generations."

Georgia Bost's resume of accomplishments speaks to her status as both a food scientist, farmer and a pioneer advocating for local, healthy, organic foods. She was an ethnobotanist and wetlands biologist with degrees from Rice University and she held numerous patents for the new crops she developed. Bost was especially passionate about the hibiscus flower, creating new North American hybrids and her own line of hibiscus teas and vinegars that she sold along with other natural products at The Village Botanica in Waller.

In 1992 Georgia and Rick were among the founders of Texans for Urban Sustainability, the first organic gardening certification program in Texas. They also helped organize Urban Harvest, which now runs farmers' markets across Houston.

The Bosts bought a 272-acre ranch in Waller County in 1999, converting it into Hibiscus Hill Plantation, a center for agricultural research as well as an environmentally sustainable ranch and farm producing grass-fed beef, natural pork, free-range eggs, chicken, turkeys and USDA-certified organic produce.

In 2009, they opened Georgia's Farm-to-Market in West Houston, a retail store and restaurant following the same local and natural philosophy, following it up with a second location downtown in January 2012.

According to a biography on the Georgia's Market website, Bost's relationship with husband Rick began when the couple worked together for three years "in the swamps of the Trinity River delta."

"Georgia would always say she fell in love with Rick Bost at first sight. Rick, however, claims he met Georgia one time before, feverish at her research — a meeting Georgia never recalled. So Rick would correct that they fell in love at second sight."

Funeral services will take place Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Woodlawn Funeral Home. Viewings are scheduled for Friday from 5-8 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The family asks that in lieu of flowers friends make a donation to Urban Harvest, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center or School of the Woods.