by Tammie (Tue Jan 05, 2010)
As I perform the almost daily maintenance on my
vegetable garden, I'm proud of my weekly bounty of berries, chard, tomatoes,
and whatever random veggie I've chosen to try. The pride is balanced by anger as
I curse the little bastards (otherwise known as slugs) that get to my
strawberries before I do and I slap my hand back as it reaches for the slug
poison on the garden center shelf. My little patch will remain organic even if
it means missing out on a nice big batch of strawberry shortcake (trying not to
hold any grudges against Mother Nature here). Still, my small, heavily shaded
garden is only enough to provide a small break from purchasing grocery store
produce and if I had to depend on it for my sole means of roughage, I'd be more
bound up than the world's largest ball of twine.
But that is the premise in Barbara
Kingsolver's book ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.' She and her family will
only eat food that is grown on their property or can be purchased from very
local supplies. Granted their bit of property is several acres with mature
fruit and nut trees and loads of space for a veggie garden (jealous, so
jealous) and she's doing this in the Appalachians - a rather productive region
of the U.S., but she and her family are determined to do it all including
raising their own poultry for meat and eggs, putting food up for storage for
the winter, and working with their community to find out how to get many other
nibbles. They do ‘cheat' and make a concession that some things need to
be purchased such as flour and coffee (I totally understand this need).
The book
isn't just a long list of ‘oh here's what we ate in January' or ‘Boy we have
oodles of tomatoes in August.' Interspersed with Kingsolver's wonderful
memoir-like stories of her garden struggles or victories, and theories about
where the American attitude toward food has gone wrong, are essays from her
daughter and husband. Her husband provides no-holds-barred information about
how terrible the U.S. food system is for the environment and us. From the
chemicals that are thrown onto our food to how it is shipped, he points out
that we use more petroleum to fill our fridges than we do to fill our cars. Her
older daughter provides recipes to show creative ways to make use of their
bounty.
In one of the most humorous parts of the book,
Barbara is debating whether to let her youngest daughter name the turkeys that
will become their dinner later in the year. She worries the 9-year-old will
develop an attachment to the birds and it will be too traumatic to kill them
when the time comes. Turns out the girl is more settled into reality than
Barbara realizes. When asked what she would choose to name the turkeys, she replies,
‘Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving...' (not an exact quote but the names are
something along those lines).
The book is fascinating, informative, and easy to
read. Their year passes by too quickly as you turn the pages and find you
can't wait to read more. The information about the food industry forces you to
think twice about what you're grabbing for on the supermarket shelf and her
tallies of her garden's production will make even the most successful gardener
envious. ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' is a must-read for anyone who eats.
If Kingsolver's book stirs up your interest
to learn more about making better choices about what you're putting in your
body and to learn why we should care about the state of our food then
definitely don't miss Michael Pollan's ‘Omnivore's Dilemma' where he tries
various (and funny) ways to procure the most sustainable meal; Jane Goodall's ‘Harvest
for Hope' that makes beautiful use of Jane's mild but never wimpy tone to
explain why we need to begin to take more interest in where and how our food is
grown and produced for our own health, and that of the animals and the planet;
and Ann Vileisis' ‘Kitchen Literacy' which describes in entertaining detail how
we went from knowing the very name of the cow whose milk we drank and meat we
ate, to not even knowing how to pronounce the ingredients in our food.
All of these terrific books will inform you about
your meal choices without being dull or preachy and will hopefully lead you to
eat more wisely.
