“Food evangelism” probably doesn’t sound too appealing, but spend a few minutes in the fresh food revival tent with Emery Sonnier and Kimisha Sawyers and you’ll be testifying you’ve seen the light and a holy band of green angels.

Emery is the Associate Director of Market Umbrella, the folks who put on 4 Farmers’ Markets a week in New Orleans. Kim is the market’s Evaluation Manager.

Growing up in a Sicilian New Orleans family and working as Assistant Editor of Food and Wine magazine New York, Emery knows a thing or two about food. Her road to the healthy side of diet came via the traditional NOLA foodie route of working in restaurants in various capacities but it was Katrina that gave her the final kick in the pants and dragged her home and headed for healthy.

Also growing up in New Orleans, Kim ate plenty of home cooked meals but they were made without regard to healthy contents. A trip to Taiwan – her first foray out of the country – suddenly opened her eyes to the possibility that she could live her life any way she wants and one of the things she changed was her approach to food and eating. Now Kim spends her days changing other lives by eating changing habits – from Big Mac to carrot snack and from chocolate shake to Beet lemonade.

And then there’s the Magic Beans and Different Color Soup… By the end of this show you’ll understand the phrase “joie de vivre” in a way you may never have before living in New Orleans.