“My mother was an extraordinary gardener. If she planted a wooden match stick I’m sure it would become a flowering bush. When I was very young, she was a taskmaster and she had me help her in the garden. The first thing I wanted to grow was carrots because my dog loved carrots. Recently I was invited to a Rosh Hashanah which is Jewish New Years, and I was assigned to make Tzimmes, and basically it is carrots and dried fruits. I remember since I was a Halloween baby, that we were making orange and black things, and I didn’t know it was tzimmes, but it was carrots and prunes.”