I'm happy to report that I'm finally on the last pages of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by: Barbara Kingsolver! It's not that the reading was arduous by any means, I just hadn't found the time to read it in a reasonable about of time....instead, it took me about 3 months - haha! Too busy. Anyhow, the book is awesome! I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in local food, sustainability, organics, homesteading, etc. In the book, Kingsolvers details a year of her and her family eating locally. This means producing the majority of their own food, swapping resources with neighbors, hitting up the local farmers markets, and ultimately attempting to eat only that which is grown organically and locally. The book is structured by months, which if you garden is a great way to follow! It gives tips on how to plan meals around what is abundant during certain months (i.e. Tomatoes in September). Also through the book are exceprts from Steven L. Hopp (Kingsolvers hubby) regarding some of the ramifications of our current food habits. He discusses the conditions animals are in prior to making it to the grocery, how far our food travels, the result of pestisides, and lots of cool, geeky science stuff. Kingsolver's daughter, Camille, also writes excerpts from her perspective of eating local with her family. She's in school for biology and has a interest in dietary needs - so she includes many great recipes. I can't wait to try them! That's that for my amatuer book review. I'd rate this 5 out of 5 - great book! You can get more information about the book: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/
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2 comments:
Excellent resource. It is invaluable to eat local. I am quite curious on the economic impact if many more people bought and consumed locally. I understand you cannot do that for everything.
I picked up the book on her name alone having read her other book. I was surprised on the content as it wasn't a novel after all. That said I haven't finished it but I agree with a lot of it.
The 100 Mile Diet t.v. show was filmed within 1/2 an hour from my home and we have learned some new things about what is available locally. They did start them out in the mid-late spring so I think the show gave an unfair view to start with. We are in southern B.C. Canada. Not very sunny here from fall to spring.
I don't know how people who live in apartments would be able to store enough food, canning etc. for the winter months.
It is definitely food for thought (pun intended) though for city dwellers I would push more for not being so wasteful with their food as a more successful line of learning.
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