Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating last weekend. Barbara Kingsolver writes about how her family spent one year eating only local food: they had to either grow it themselves, find a local provider, or do without it. Her family made the change for environmental reasons, and found social and health benefits too.
By eating locally and seasonally, less food needs to be transported from around the country or even overseas. Kingsolver tells how she planted a vegetable garden, bought chickens and turkeys, and found produce from local farmers. They made their way through birthday parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and the lean winter months with some creativity and planning. She discusses the food they eat when on holidays, sharing the different perspectives she finds as they travel. Her husband writes extra sidebars about the legal issues facing farmers and consumers, while her eldest daughter adds their favourite recipes (which you can see at AnimalVegetableMiracle.com).
Their efforts to get rid of zucchini made me laugh, and I was in suspense over the turkeys: would they ever figure out where babies come from? There’s plenty of useful info about growing vegetables too. The discussion about industrial agriculture was interesting, and I think it’s relevant in a lot of ways to the Australian farming situation.
Sometimes Kingsolver gets starry-eyed over farm life, making it sound magical and amazing. But she isn’t encouraging everyone to abandon their jobs to take up full-time farming. She simply insists that since we all have to eat, we all need to learn more about our food: how it grows, where it comes from, its effect on our social lives, and how our agricultural system contributes to our culture and economy. Her joyful passion for food and gardening is inspiring. I’m going to start a vegie patch this month, to see if I can grow a few winter vegetables.
Anyone who enjoys good food will enjoy this book - reading it made my mouth water! Gardeners will find that they have a lot in common with Kingsolver’s triumphs and disappointments, while people looking for alternatives to industrial agriculture will find useful information. I’d also recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, because it relates to the small, local farming he discusses in the 3rd section of that book.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I enjoyed Kingsolver’s book ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ and I was wondering how her writing style would translate to a non-fiction book. I found that the parts of ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ which I enjoyed most were the anecdotes about her family and life of the farm, the obstacles they came across in their quest to eat local and the solutions they came up with. Her passion for the subject is infectious and it was a good read.
I could have done without some of the flowery writing (which, incidentally, I enjoyed in ‘Poisonwood Bible’) but I thought that it really slowed down the pace of this book and I was eager for more action and more practical stories. On that same note, there were a lot of Kingsolver’s theories and in depth exploration of ideas. This was interesting, and encouraged the reader to think, I just thought there was perhaps a little too much, and I became bored with some parts. It was good to see the recipes, but there wasn’t really any that I was dying to try out, and a lot seemed to be quite high in fat (i.e. cheeses and pastries). They might be really helpful for someone else though.
I wish there was a corresponding book about Australia, because a lot of the info was only relevant to North America. For example, the months vs seasons and the local veggies. Also I suppose the meat industries work a bit differently here, and of course the organizations they suggested you contact weren’t heaps relevant for Aussies.
Reading this book inspired me to ditch Coles and buy my veggies from the local fruit and veggie mart. There are a few in my area so I tried out a couple, and I was thrilled with the upgrade in quality. I have also reverted to buying Bannister Downs milk. The dairy is in Northcliffe WA, so semi-local, and they use organic methods and package in biodegradable limestone packaging. I’ve tried out an organic practices butcher and stocked up on local red meat which was much better quality and cheaper than most organic shops red meat. And I tried (locally produced) rhubarb for the first time on the weekend.
It was delicious :o)
September 4th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I’d love to read an Aussie equivalent of this book - info about our agricultural system is pretty thin on the ground. Do you think you would’ve found the in-depth stuff more interesting if it’d been more relevant to our country?
I didn’t mind the floweriness, but I was reading it while sick with a cold so a long, meandering style suited my pace then
I’m determined to try the rhubarb & strawberry crisp recipe! Rhubarb is fantastic stuff. I’m glad you’ve got such good sources for local and organic nearby - I’m doing better with the fruit-n-veg now that we’ve found the Swansea St market, but the meat is still a bit difficult.