Please join us for a conversation between two of California's most eloquent writers on food, farming, and identity. In his new book Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies from the Land, Fresno's well known Slow Food activist and organic peach farmer David Mas Masumoto tells the story of his third-generation family homestead and the wisdom of his ancestors, the history of American agriculture over the past century, and lessons learned from working the land. Meanwhile, urban and rural collide in Novella Carpenter's wry memoir Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. The book recounts Carpenter's efforts to turn a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm, including a fertile vegetable garden, a beehive, a chicken coop, a menagerie of animals, and a new neighborhood community. David Mas Masumoto is an organic peach and grape farmer and the celebrated author of books including Heirlooms, Letters to the Valley, Four Seasons in Five Senses, Harvest Son, and Epitaph for a Peach. Masumoto is also a columnist for The Fresno Bee. His writing awards include the Commonwealth Club Silver medal, the Julia Child Cookbook award, and the James Clavell Literacy Award, and he was a finalist in the James Beard Foundation awards. Novella Carpenter grew up in rural Idaho and Washington State. She completed her BA at the University of Washington, where she majored in Biology and English. Carpenter later studied under Michael Pollan at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism for two years. Her writing has appeared in Salon.com, Saveur.com, and sfgate.com. Her first book, Farm City is currently #4 on the San Francisco Chronicle's non-fiction bestseller list.