Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite fiction authors. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is a work of non-fiction. It tells the story of an experimental year as Kingsolver and her family became locavores. They grew and harvested most of their own food, and bought local organic food for the majority of the rest. It’s not fiction, but it almost reads like a novel. I became very interested in the happenings around the farm, wondering about the crops, how their youngest daughters egg business would do, and anxious to see if the turkeys would hatch their eggs.
The chapters are divided month by month. Kingsolver’s husband, biologist Steven L. Hopp, and her daughter Camille Kingsolver, also contributed to the book. Hopp has short articles on such things as Fair Trade, Mad Cow disease and how different governments reacted, and how to find local farmers. Camille contributes short essays on her own generation’s attitudes about food as well as recipes. Throughout the year, the family harvest asparagus, raises chickens and turkeys for eggs and harvest, cans tomatoes, unearths a potato harvest, and makes homemade cheese.
Before reading this book, I hadn’t considered how much food choices matter to our environment and our health. This is not a preachy book, Kingsolver realizes that most of us don’t have a family farm with mature orchards. But most of us could grow a few herbs or cherry tomatoes on a patio, eat more seasonally, and support our local farmers. She also admits that her family didn’t give up coffee, but they did find a way to purchase it from farms that respected the environment and from a company that gives decent wages to its workers.
I found the book inspiring. There’s no reason my own family can’t shop more often at the farmer’s market. The produce is fresher, often even less expensive than the grocery store, supports local families and businesses, and doesn’t take gallons of gas to get to our neighborhood. I’m even tempted to try making ricotta and mozzarella. At least once.
The business of food is complicated, in more ways than I’d ever realized. I’d recommend the book to anyone with environmental concerns, and anyone who is looking for a healthier way to feed their family.
(Published 2007 by HarperCollins)
Also See:
Gardening Tips: Asparagus and More
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver