From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman, and this is good food. When life feels overwhelming, I garden,

you know, touch grass, disconnect, put your hands in the soil. In his new book, Gardner and writer

Kevin West puts words to this primal instinct. The poet W.S. Merwin wrote that a garden is made of hope.

I think that the garden is a place where we can grow literally,

a better future for ourselves, for our families, for our communities.

And to me, this notion of the garden as an act of defiance

as a way of proclaiming a better future,

this is a very, very powerful and inspiring and relevant

idea for this day today. For many years, Kevin West was an active part of the Southern

California cooking, teaching, and preserving scene. We lost him to the beauty of the Berkshires,

but in exchange, we get a new book. The Cook's Garden focuses on how

and what to plant from a cook's point of view. I predict that it is a book that will in time

get dotted with both soil and cooking splatters, which I love the idea of that. Hi, Kevin. Hi, Evan.

How are you? I'm very Hi, Evan. How are you?

I'm very well, thanks.

How are you?

It's great to talk to you.

It's great to talk to you, too.

The first sentence in your book is, this is a book about flavor.

I think most long-time gardeners understand this,

but for a cook, they might be befuddled as to how flavor intersects with growing things.

There are so many ways we can approach that, but let's talk first about varietal character, because I think it's something that gardeners have a really good intuitive sense of already.

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