Cathy Wilkinson Barash

Cathy Wilkinson Barash was born on Long Island, New York in 1949 and spent much of her life there until she moved to Iowa in 1997. She is a life-long organic gardener. From childhood she has held firm a belief in economy of space and time in the garden mainly by planting edibles among ornamentals, “so many fruits, vegetables, and herbs are beautiful themselves”—instead of relegating them to the back 40. Anne Raver of The New York Times was the first to call her a “gourmet horticulturist,” as she practices edible landscaping—specializing in edible flowers—and is a gourmet cook.

An award-wining freelance photographer, writer, designer, and professional speaker, Cathy is best known as the author and photographer of "Edible Flowers from Garden to Palate," which Martha Stewart described as "very excellent." Published in 1993, "Edible Flowers" was nominated for a Julia Child Cookbook Award and garnered an Award of Excellence from the Garden Writers Association. She is the author of 16 other books, including "Evening Gardens" and "Gardening in the Prairie and Plains States."

She was honored as a Fellow of the Garden Writers Association in 2012, and was inducted into GardenComm (Garden Communicators International) Hall of Fame in 2022.