Rose Seemann

Rose Seemann was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. where she cut her baby teeth on the romance of recycling. Her granddad, a Croatian immigrant who worked long hours at the South Side J&L Steel Works, maintained an urban farm to help feed his family. Leftovers were buried in the gardens, a rotating smorgasbord for bushes, edibles and flowering plants. Wherever she lived, whatever her circumstances, the author always followed her granddad's lead and left the soil richer than she found it. "It's always a privilege to give back to the earth," she says.