We're still trying to catch up on a few of the top foodie reads from 2007, and we wanted to make sure you didn't miss this one!
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicles the struggles and triumphs from author Barbara Kingsolver's first year of living and eating 100% locally.
After deciding to leave Tuscon and its frustrating food culture, Kingsolver and her family set up shop on a family farm in rural Virginia.
They plant and nurture a year's worth of produce and carefully put away of portion of the harvest to sustain them through the lean winter months. They raise a small army of chickens, turkeys, and goats, and they turn to local farmers to fill in the blanks where their own farm can't provide. Interwoven within Kingsolver's narrative are scientific asides from her husband and stories from her daughter, reinforcing the fact that living locally took the combined effort of her whole family.
Though her situation is rather unique (not all of us have a family farm in Virginia to fall back on!), we love that Kingsolver makes her experience universal. We can see how she integrates eating locally into her everyday life and we can draw parallels in our own lives. Her side stories about the efforts of local farmers and visits to people like the Cheese Queen in Massachusetts remind us to take advantage of the resources that are available to us wherever we live.
Kingsolver keeps her focus on what we can be actively doing rather than just what's wrong with our food situation in America. And since we're cooks, we're happy to report that the seasonal recipes included in the book look fantastic--recipes like "Asparagus and Morel Bread Pudding" and "Basil-Blackberry Crumble" have us counting the days until the farmer's markets open.
If you haven't read this book yet, we definitely recommend picking up a copy. Her "year of food life" begins in April and proceeds seasonally, so now is a good time to start reading and get inspired for your own year of local eating.
• You can also see a lot of good discussion on this book over at our green and sustainable home site - re-nest. This was their Book Club pick recently and they just finished discussing. You can see all their book posts here.
Links:
• Buy Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, $17.79 on Amazon.
• Barbara Kingsolver's Site: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
• The Cheese Queen
• National Directory of Farmer's Markets
More on Eating Locally from the Kitchn:
• Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
• Conscientious Cook: Local Foods for Local Schools
• Conscientious Cook: Sustainable Distance Eating
• How to Start a New CSA: Interview with Paula Lukats of Just Food
• CSA = Community Supported Agriculture
Photo credit: HarperCollins Publishers
This is by Emma, who is up for one of our new writer positions. Welcome Emma!
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
Excellent pick! I've been a fan of Kingsolver's since I read her famous Poisonwood Bible! Her influence is missed in the Southwest, but I can certainly understand her needing to leave in order to sustain her lifestyle! Good for her!
view OneWallKitchen's profile
I'm almost through with this book and I just love it. I'm learning a lot even though I thought I was relatively well-versed on how both large-scale and small-scale farming works.
It's well written and certainly not "preachy" in any off-putting way.
view Squirrely's profile
I loved this book - she is living my "back to the earth" fantasy and I'm terribly jealous. Vegetarians may find her chapters about animal slaughter hard to take, but it's a definite improvement on slaughterhouses.
view LM's profile
Must read this one! I feel like I'm missing out.
view art's profile
This was one of the best books I read last year. I wrote a review of it here, if anyone's interested.
view Doppelganger's profile
Thanks for that Doppelganger,
just the kind of grim details I love reading about!
Interesting, the gov. giving credits for fresh fruit and veg to American Indian seniors. That must be to balance out the government cheese, lard, sugar and flour that the government has been so kind to provide them with over the years.
I wonder if Kingsolver has one of these, http://www.naturemill.com/ my next "research" project. There's a video too.
view art's profile
This is one of the best food books (or any type of book!) I have read in a long time.
I found it to be well written and informative, without being overly preachy or dramatic.
This is probably the first book I have read that made me think differently about my vegetarianism too. Her chapter on the amount of killing that goes into veggie crops was really well done.
Tons of great recipes too!
view Marie's profile
I also loved this book. It's totally inspired me to buy more locally. In fact, my husband and I went to our state's farmers' market today and got some locally raised pork and beef. *shudders with excitement*
view lindsey's profile
This book completely changed my life! Loved, loved, loved it. I think this and "Omnivores Dilemma" should be required reading for everyone in this country.
view splatgirl's profile