Children of Khalsa

Patricia Klindienst is a master gardener and an award-winning scholar and teacher. She lives in Guilford, Connecticut, and teaches creative writing each summer at Yale University. Excerpted from The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic America, by Patricia Klindienst. Copyright © 2006 by Patricia Klindienst. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A California gardener used the farming wisdom of her native India to create a suburban paradise that restored her soil--and sustains her soul. “I told my father, ‘I will be poorer in America, but my conscience will be free.’” I write the words on a paper napkin and turn it to face her. “Is this right? Is this what you just said?” “Yes. I did not come to America to trade my cultural heritage for money.” I take the napkin back and write the second sentence as well. Her words are so striking that I do not want to rely on memory al...