Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara KingsolverMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was one of the most enlightening books I have read in awhile. Do you ever think about where our food comes from and how far most of it has to travel to get to our favorite grocery store? I can honestly say I really never gave it much thought until I read this book. This is the story of the author and her family's quest to eat local and in season food as much as they could for a year and they do it and enjoy it. Most of the food they grow themselves on their farm in Virginia so it's not as if any of us could actually live this way to the extent that they did. But the lessons they learned are applicable to everyone. I am not always a huge non-fiction fan. I usually read to escape, not examine real life (shallow as that sounds). But the way she explains this totally ordinary life on their farm is also quite entertaining. How can you not enjoy a description of onions coming up out of the ground as "visions of Wonderbras". In one section she is making cheese (never knew you could actually do that in any kitchen, but I am actually considering trying it!) and when she tells the grocery clerk that, she is amazed and says, "Now that is a real homemaker!" The author says it took her along time to get to the point that she considered that a great compliment. Feeding our families well is an important work!
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2 comments:
This sounds very informative, I may have to read this one. Does it talk about meat and where it comes from and how it is processed?
It did talk some about meat. They have gone years without eating any mass farmed meat. I don't think I could quite go that far- how do you eat much at restaurants?- but it does make you think twice. We have a buffalo in our freezer that we know where it came from and that has no steroids or hormones. Makes me feel a little better.
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