Katherine Pryor: Hello, my name is Katherine Pryor. My ancestors came to the United States from England, Whales, Germany, and the Netherlands. And family legend has it that the early American Pryor's were one of those families split apart by the Civil War. With my relatives fighting with the North, while their cousins fought with the South. And what I know for sure is that my great-great- and maybe one more great, grandparent Pryor's were Kansas homesteaders in the 1800s. And I can only imagine what a hard, hungry life it must have been, growing all the food they needed to eat, trade or sell, to last an entire year.

My grandfather Pryor moved to San Francisco in the 1940s and we've been spoiled city dwellers ever since. But that history of growing food, storing food, being self sufficient, and fighting for what I believe in, lives on in me. I think my family history is one reason I write the stories I do. There was a time when my ancestors wouldn't have survived without being able to grow enough food to feed their families.

I'm alive today because of their farms and gardens and I'm grateful for them.