Severine chats with Rusty Davis live from The Golden Gate Bridge! Rusty subverts conventional wisdom on topics ranging from permaculture, reforestation, biodiesel and veggie oil.

Jessica Soffer explores the connections between food, writing, culture in her first novel, Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. Jessica joins Cathy Erway for this week's Eat Your Words to talk about her Iraqi Jew heritage, and how the food culture of her people is underrepresented in New York City, and the world. Learn more about the novel, and the trend of books that includes evocative plots involving food and heritage. Have you ever had masgouf? Learn about the traditional Iraqi dish that includes butterflying and grilling a white fish vertically. What other novelists does Jessica admire? Find out all of this and more on this week's installment of Eat Your Words! This program has been sponsored by Fairway Market. Thanks to The California Honeydrops for today's music.

"I think there's an explicit connection: getting affirmation from cooking and writing." [6:30]

"Masgouf is the national dish of Iraq, which is interesting because it's so different from what it once was." [17:50]

-- Jessica Soffer on Eat Your Words

Roots & Wisdom, an urban organic gardening, youth and community development program of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Schenectady, New York, sparked Catherine Winters' interest in the environment. The summers before her junior and senior years of high school, Catherine worked for Roots & Wisdom as a youth (teenage) worker where she got firsthand experience growing vegetables organically, working at farmers markets, teaching children about plants and health, and passing her knowledge to adults as well. The youth workers also participated in workshops each week on topics including community, diversity, food justice, sustainability, and local food. Last summer, Catherine joined the Roots & Wisdom family again as the special events crew leader, where she enjoyed working with visitors and helping the new youth have a great Roots & Wisdom experience too. She will be returning to Roots & Wisdom this summer as an intern so she can gain experience with other aspects of non-profit organizations. Catherine is currently an Environmental Chemistry major with a minor in Environmental Science and Policy at Hartwick College. She hopes to apply her hard science background from undergraduate studies to an interdisciplinary graduate school program that will prepare her for a career in Environmental Policy or teaching the public about sustainability.

"Most of the youth [at Roots and Wisdom] have never left the urban scene, but by the end of the summer, they love the outdoors."

-- Catherine Winters on Greenhorn Radio