Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book accidentally on my library's Overdrive and read it on my old school Kindle. I hope the print version has glossy pictures of the food and animals. But even with just black and white text, I really liked the book.

Basically this is a memoir of a year of local eating -- as local as possible without giving up coffee and spices or being total jerks while guests in others' homes. I'm concerned about what I feed Jane and how I can give her the best tools for eating well. So this was right up my alley interest-wise. I am a fan of Kingsolver's fiction, so when I saw this pop up in my unrelated search on Overdrive I gave it a try.

It's full of facts about the farming industry, and I was constantly spouting them to Shawn. It's a few years old though, so things are probably different. I hope it's the case that more people are embracing the more local eating. Personally I don't do well on it at all -- we eat bananas every week, and that's one of the verboten foods in this family's home. I am inspired to take a look at the farmers market again, now that it isn't quite so screaming hot, and really pay attention to in season vegetables and find fruits that haven't traveled so far. Less processed food is always a goal of mine, and I fail regularly (crackers and DDP are two big weaknesses).

Copying this family's year-long quest (that seemed to turn into a no-big-deal lifestyle after all) would be impossible without a farm to grow crops and raise animals, but she discusses that too and offers tips for eating locally without growing your own food. (Personally my garden continues to be a disappointment ... but maybe next year will be better.) Otherwise the book is inspiring to anyone who is thinking about making changes -- small or large -- to help their own foodshed.

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