When Hardison is copying one of Eliot's cover stories and changing it for Sophie, you can see that the character's name is Michael Colton - Michael Colton was a writer/executive story editor on 10 episodes of Leverage.
The client is named Emily Margold, who creates a "Super Tuber" potato. Marigolds are a companion plant with potatoes.
Sophie's alias is that she works for Valerian Security. Valerian is the name of a plant (which connects it to the agricultural theme of the episode) and comes from a Latin root word meaning "strength."