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It's a My favorite cameo of all times from The Simpsons features Ed Begley Jr with a non-polluting car that runs on "[his] own sense of self-satisfaction. It's a pity, too, because I think her message is important. Have a lot of Americans lost a connection with the land? Do many of us eat far too much processed food? However, Kingsolver can't seem to find one redeeming virtue in the life that so many millions of Americans live. At one point she mentions throwing the baby out with the bathwater in terms of the poor food choices Americans make, but with her all-or-nothing perspective, she is doing a little baby-tossing of her own.
She sings the praises of Europe while stating that the US has no food culture.
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I've lived in every time zone in the continental US, and in every place I've found a different food culture. The US is a nation of immigrants, and despite McDonalds and Taco Bell, many features of this cultural blending are still alive and well. The essays and sidebar articles by her husband and daughter are really what caused me to give the book two stars. The recipes her daughter writes about sound delicious, but the overly earnest prose is obviously written by a teenager, albeit a very intelligent one. The sidebars, like most sidebar articles, are too brief to really tell the full story.
This was true at one point, although anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that this is no longer the case, but he doesn't mention that in Western Siberia, a lot of people can no longer garden because encephalitis-bearing ticks have taken over their land, and they get closer and closer to the cities every year. The government used to spray for these ticks once a year, but they stopped spraying during the lean s, and the ticks have taken over. A lot of families can no longer grow vegetables to supplement their diets, and the percentage of encephalitis-infected ticks grows every year.
This is one example where the benefits of pesticides might outweigh the risks. Long story short too late, I know , this was in many respects a good book, and I enjoyed parts of it a lot. It was the feeling of Kingsolver's contempt for the majority of Americans that made it so hard to take. First, I want to confess that I didn't finish this book.
So there are about thirty pages at the end that I cannot account for, but I seriously doubt that they saved this book from where it had already been, and frankly I was too angered and frustrated to find out. My two major complaints are these: Kingsolver and her husband and older daughter whose interludes are also included are incredibly smug about the entire process. All the descriptions of what they are doing are terribly s First, I want to confess that I didn't finish this book. And not, as with Kingsolver's family, as a sort of "experiment" to see if they could "do without," but because it is necessary.
They grow food and eat locally because doing so is necessary both for their income and as the direct source of food for their families. Kingsolver who was almost certainly funded to some extent by her publisher uses folksy language and lots of "we" talk to make it sound as if she struggles alongside farmers and shares a sort of moral high ground with them for "opting out. It's not about options for most people.
Most people who farm, even on a small scale, don't get to make an adventurous, fun choice to pick up, move across the country and farm just to see if they can do it. They don't have publishers who will pay for this, and the comfort of knowing that if their crops fail, they won't starve and the bills will still get paid.
Most farmers are living where there families have lived for generations, and the success or failure of their growing seasons is everything. I'm not suggesting that there's anything wrong with engaging in this sort of experiment, or being supported by your publisher to do so and write about it. But it is wrong to pretend that it is the same reality as that faced by most who really do live off the land, or that it is a viable option for those who don't.
This makes her awkward insertion of phrases like "plumb wasted" feel insulting and fake. It's hard to believe that she really speaks in that folksy sort of tone when her other books don't reflect that type of language anywhere, and when she is a noted and well-published writer. She never acknowledges the role that poverty plays in poor nutrition in this country, or that for many people eating local fresh foods is simply not an option financially when they have whole families to feed, often on a single small income and have to fill stomachs as they can afford to.
Fast food companies and other major food manufacturers and providers prey on these people by making the cheapest, most filling and widely available foods of a dreadful quality. She might suggest that those who cannot afford this type of food should grow it themselves, but these are not typically people who own or have access to acres of land or the starting capital to grow enough to feed their families. She talks about the importance of eating more vegetables, more local vegetables, and more diverse vegetables, and almost in the same breath starts taking shots at vegetarians and vegans.
Because in her logic, cows and chickens and pigs would not exist at all if we didn't farm them. If they had never been domesticated as part of an agricultural strategy, they would simply have continued to exist in the wild as they had done before. Farms didn't invent farm animals, pulling them out of the ether. It's a statement that makes no sense whatsoever.
She goes on to say that vegetarianism is actually worse than meat eating, since, as part of the process of harvesting plant crops, lots of insects and worms get killed. Vegetarians are actually even more morally culpable for food-related murder because more animals die when plants are cut down than just the one animal that dies for meat at a time. She further supports her positing that vegetarians and vegans are silly and naive by saying that they want to set all farm animals free, which would cause chaos and destruction everywhere.
I don't know any vegetarians or vegans who actually want to do that or think it would be a realistic option even if they did. She portrays everyone who chooses not to eat meat or animal products as a sentimental moron who only thinks what they do because they just don't get it. They are saying, if this is what is required in order to consume meat or other animal foods, it's not worth it. And what if they have made that choice based on ethics.
I agree wholeheartedly with Jonathan Safran Foer's argument on this subject, which is this: Isn't ignoring all the facts of most modern animal production, the deep and lasting harm it causes to animals, laborers, consumers and the environment, and yes, the possible moral implications of killing another living thing when most of us no longer depend upon doing so to avoid starvation, all because "meat tastes good" and it affords a few minutes of pleasure in the eating a much MORE sentimental and LESS rational position than recognizing those facts and choosing to eat accordingly?
I realize that Kingsolver is supporting the eating of sustainably raised animals, which sidesteps the issue of CAFOs and factory farms somewhat, but these types of animals are NOT available to or affordable for everyone, or even to most. She tells a story about her family sitting around the kitchen table one night all laughing together at a vegan actress they read about who wants to start a farm sanctuary.
They laugh about how she must not know anything about farm animals, and how unhappy she'd be once she actually had to deal with them. There's no talk about the noble work that farm sanctuaries actually do. They rescue discarded animals from factory farms who have been effectively left for dead or so horribly abused that they are no longer considered fit even for consumption.
They are rehabilitated and allowed to live out natural lives as well as possible on farm sanctuaries. If Kingsolver thinks this is funny, she is either clueless or heartless. It's ill-informed, illogical, and ridiculous. It made me wish I still had the library's copy of Foer's book so I could vent my frustration by using it to beat Kingsolver's into a pulp.
Also I would have had to pay to replace it with another copy, which I would be loathe to do. Even my omnivorous boyfriend responded to the passage when I read it to him with an unguarded, "She's an idiot! I'll summarize one that I think tells the whole story. Her youngest daughter, Lily, keeps hens as a little girl, both in their Tucson home and their new Appalachian one. The first time she experiences the death of one of her hens, she weeps and mourns for quite some time, until Kingsolver says to her, "It's just a chicken.
Kingsolver talks about how much that hurt her feelings, when of course her little girl was looking for a way to demonstrate the depth of her devotion to her pets by comparing it to the biggest love she knew, that of her mother. Instead of realizing this, Kingsolver pouts until her daughter apologizes. Now who's acting like a child? In a later episode, told by Kingsolver as a cute little "growing up" story, they get a new flock of hens at their new home, and Lily asks for a promise that they aren't going to eat her hens as part of this project.
Kingsolver says that the hens are Lily's and if she doesn't want them eaten, then they won't be. Here's where the story takes a dark turn. Lily is interested in horseback riding. She's taken lessons and loves horses, and now that they are living next to and around so many farms, she has lots of friends who own horses of their own, and, inevitably she starts to want one of her own. Kingsolver tells her they can get a horse if Lily can raise half the money for it, which she will then match. How much does a horse cost, Lily wants to know? Oh, about a thousand dollars says Kingsolver knowing that she's overestimating.
Lily sets about figuring out how long it will take her to make five-hundred dollars selling eggs which she has been doing as a hobby. When Lily returns from her room, concerned about how long it will take to raise the money, Kingsolver suggests she sell something else. When Lily a little child, desperate for the horse she wants so badly reluctantly asks how much she could get if she sold the chickens for meat, Kingsolver answers that she could get a quite a bit more for the meat than for the eggs, all the while acting as if she was just neutrally giving information to her daughter.
Of course there is nothing neutral about basically creating a situation in her daughter's mind in which the choice is between killing her chickens or not getting a horse. Her daughter hesitantly agrees, but, hinting at the trouble her conscience is still giving her, repeatedly says "we'll only kill the mean ones. She could have offered alternative ways of raising the money. She could have even just acknowledged her daughters feelings by saying, "I know you really want a horse, but are you sure you really want to kill your chickens to get it?
What sort of message is that to raise a child with? You have to kill, harm or otherwise sacrifice what or in this case who you love to get the things you want. You should ignore, suppress, and otherwise avoid being guided by your values and your internal moral compass when it gets in the way. She told the story with a knowing parental chuckle, but I found it chilling, and I shed a couple of tears in the reading. So, why didn't I love this book? Yowsers, if I wanted to be depressed I'd watch daytime TV, not read a book.
- Gems of God.
- Painting and Decorating.
- If I Told You I was Lying - Would You Believe Me? (kindle select series);
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life Barbara Kingsolver.
It's a lot of doom and gloom, particularly from Kingsolver's husband uber downer. She and her family spend a lot of time planting seeds, celebrating food, pointing fingers, and patting themselves on the back. I ended up feeling more like oh-come-on-and-just-go-to-a-supermarket than cheering for the do gooders. They just didn't seem that fun. And what is life if you suck all of the fun out of it?
Ok, maybe that's all a bit harsh. But I had high expectations because of the writer and the topic. I did learn interesting things about farming, seeds, living simply, and thinking twice or three times before buying food that has been shipped. I also learned that eating locally and growing your food are not necessarily as romantic in real life as they are in my head. I love reading about people who think differently, act differently and live differently than the norm. I think the grow your own philosophy of this family is extreme for our culture but I am so attracted to it because it's a life lived with intention and deep conviction.
In comparison I found our own family's efforts in supporting our local agriculture fairly piddly. This was a reality check since I can sometimes get on my high horse because I belong to a CSA and visit the weekly summer farmer's market. My basic criticisms of the book are two.
Firstly, Kingsolver spends a fair amount of time writing about being a working mother. How she's managed to have a career and still can tomatoes. Or at the very least she doesn't exactly expound on her daily goings on except for what she's picking from the garden and special events celebrated with family and friends. What I want to know is how do you raise animals, plant, weed, pick, can and preserve the garden, butcher the animals and cook a home cooked meal every night?
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Wikipedia
All while parenting, cleaning house, doing laundry, running errands, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da AND working full time?? These questions are never answered. And yet growing at least some of your own food is presented as achievable for the American family. I believe that unless the average American family undergoes a shift in priorities to spend less, drive less and work less the grow your own mentality is largely unrealistic.
But hopefully books like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle will be a part of the movement that changes our popular fast food, fast life culture. So that realistically more families will choose to grow more gardens and shop for local, in season food. That brings me to the second criticism or perhaps observation. As a plant based eater living in Northern New England if I chose to eat only locally grown foods I'd eat a lot of potatotes and go crazy with summer blueberries not a bad thing. Our family has chosen to base our diet on plants for improved immediate health and longevity, we want to be hiking with our grandkids.
Eating a variety of foods from around the globe at times makes this possible. And for many, many people the only way to achieve the health they want in northern latitudes is to eat fruits and vegetables grown elsewhere. A bit of a conundrum if you believe in local sustainable agriculture - which I do. So, I'm thinking this one through. Trying to think of all the healthy foods which are grown here, how we can maximize our consumption of those and perhaps decrease the food we eat that is shipped from long distances.
Overall, the book was a fantastic read. Kingsolver is engaging, funny, convincing and just an all round excellent writer. View all 3 comments. I enjoyed spending time with this book and the thoughts of the author. Barbara and her family decided to do an experiment and only eat what they raise and what is grown locally while it is in season for a year.
It sounds so cutting edge and yet just 50 or so years ago this was the normal in the country. What a difference a half century makes. She really made me think about my food. I thought I eat healthy, but I eat things out of season and from all over the world. I have a huge carbon footprint I enjoyed spending time with this book and the thoughts of the author. I have a huge carbon footprint with my food.
I eat things all times of the year. I think not having a farm makes this difficult to do, but maybe that is all in my head. She has some amazing stories. Did you know that Turkeys have pretty much forgotten how to mate? It has been breed out of them. That seems crazy and it makes me feel the world will end soon.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Tenth Anniversary Edition - A Year of Food Life (Paperback)
At these industrial farms all the animals are artificially inseminated. She does help her Turkeys get their groove on. I love the way she gave food personality. I liked how she spoke of vegetarians. I didn't know this, but 1,s of animals die from the pesticides used to grow plants, so you can't eat anything that isn't local which doesn't kill animals in some way. Listening to her book made me want to spend a year eating locally.
I doubt it will happen for a while, but it sounds great. I learned so much about our food in this country. Farming is difficult and rewarding. Some conservative magazine put Barbara on the most dangerous people trying to destroy America list. She talks about it in the story as she is making dinner covered in farm goo. A women living off the land really doesn't sound that dangerous. Maybe her ideas seem dangerous to those with their head in the sand - I don't know. This was a fantastic book and I can't live up to its message. I am glad the message is out there and maybe it will inspire more people to buy local.
I know at least I can go to my farmers market now more often. If you have ever grown asparagus, thought about growing asparagus or picked wild asparagus, you will enjoy the Waiting for Asparagus chapter. If you adore heirloom tomatoes that have a limited season, taste like real tomatoes, and probably have to be bought at your local farmers market, you will enjoy the chapter Springing Forward where you will not only read about heirloom seeds and their ilk, but also hear the author rant about genetically modified and hybrid corn and soybeans that have been d If you have ever grown asparagus, thought about growing asparagus or picked wild asparagus, you will enjoy the Waiting for Asparagus chapter.
If you adore heirloom tomatoes that have a limited season, taste like real tomatoes, and probably have to be bought at your local farmers market, you will enjoy the chapter Springing Forward where you will not only read about heirloom seeds and their ilk, but also hear the author rant about genetically modified and hybrid corn and soybeans that have been developed to make money for large agribusiness companies. Also be prepared to listen up about hybrid tomatoes that have been genetically modified to travel and pack well; taste is totally secondary.
And the book goes on with personal experiences of the Kingsolver family as they experimented with limiting themselves to local food, that is, to become locavores, and to learn about the history of agriculture and the things that threaten it today. It is a combination of storytelling that Barbara Kingsolver does very well and the nonfiction of food politics. You will likely find other information that will surprise and confound and annoy you in the pages of this book. I think that encouraging thinking and debating is one of the good things about this book.
The book presents a lot of introductory information. For the details you can go to the resource pages at the end of the book. Things you will get to read about in small doses: Mail order chicks Raising turkeys for food CAFOs concentrated animal feeding operations Vegetarianism Morels Amish dairy farming Farm subsidies Harvesting farm animals Fair Trade products Global warming Food in school cafeterias Yes, as promised, turkey sex At the end of the book you will find pages of organizations and resources about the issues and ideas raised in the book complete with URLs internet addresses so you can go investigating without any delay.
There is also a web site for the book at http: Kingsolver encourages you to learn and she believes that her knowledge and experience of being a locavore will serve you well, literally. She can be a little pushy and does have a disability of thinking she is right much of the time on this topic. She most likely is right! But some readers have felt she demeans them with her tone and certainty and facts. I mostly took it to mean that she is most dedicated to and enthusiastic about the politics of food and wants you to share both her concerns and excitement.
One of the cook books she recommends is Local Flavors. I have had a few brushes with farm and locavore life so found the book reminiscent of days past in my life. This created a special enjoyment even though my experiences were all relatively short term and some time ago. I enjoyed reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle enough to give it four stars. I think it will increase my desire to buy local food at the community market in season and to give more consideration to organically grown local food.
Regrettably the local natural food store that has been in the Lynchburg area for the past two decades just closed, a victim of the down economy. However, the community market here is fairly substantial for seasonal produce and has local free range meat year round. I was planning to read it, but Sara read it first! I give this book 5 stars because its cause is very close to my heart. It is an excellent primer for sustainable, local food sourcing: It covers the reasons why the country's foodways face imminent disaster, how you can help, and, most importantly for newbies, the many, many pleasures that can be had from responsible eating.
Barbara Kingsolver chooses to take as pleasant, nonjudgmental and nondidactic approach as one can take to such important topics, because she is hoping to persuade people who are ignorant of or hostile to the issues. If you consider yourself a Democrat, liberal, environmentalist, humanist--or for that matter, a conservative who cares about the future of his or her children--you simply cannot rely on industrial food--including organic industrial food--for the majority of your diet. It is wrong, and there's no way to get around it.
It was wrong to support the Iraq war did anybody follow the news a few years ago that it has been made illegal in Iraq to save seeds? Iraqi farmers have been doing it for like thousands of years, growing crops from seed saved from previous harvests. We know that this has already happened on a huge scale in the U. It makes me furious to see this happening, and to do it myself when I lapse, in a way that should be more common--we should be angry, and we should talk about it, and we should not let ourselves off the hook.
So obviously I'm passionate about this. Oh, back to the book. So, I think it's an important book, and I have Kingsolver's essay "Lily's Chickens" to thank for introducing me to these issues a few years ago. I learned some useful things abut aspects of food policy with which I was unfamiliar, and a lot of gardening tips.
And I found it inspiring, and guilt-inspiring in a GOOD way, that is, the way that makes you change for the better, and not the way that makes you whine about how you have good reasons for being the way you are and that it's unfair of other people to expect you to change But because I'm familiar with some of the material already, some things did stand out to me as mistakes.
Her arguments about the bias against rural people, and her explanation of rural hostility to newcomers and difference as a protection against exploitation, were interesting and compelling, but her failure to acknowledge that we are not all white middle-class families, and that our "difference" can be construed in entirely different ways, as indeed a failure. I'm not saying that only country people are racist or homophobic.
But you can't defend the hinterlands as protective of some kind of essential American identity. Her arguments in favor of meat eating, when she concentrated on the environmental benefits of sustainable grazing in nonarable land, were very good; they were NOT good when she defended meat eating as part of "civilization," and therefore okay. I received this book in the mail as a recommendation from my dear friend Fievel. The kind gesture was much appreciated. I initially found myself enjoying this book, though I struggled with Kingsolver's assertion that anyone of any income level could participate in her "locavore" eating local and organic diet.
Putting aside Kingsolver's complete disregard for her privilege, I was intrigued by her tales of gardening and interested in some of her recipes. However, Kingsolver totally lost me when s I received this book in the mail as a recommendation from my dear friend Fievel. However, Kingsolver totally lost me when she began making snarky and degrading comments about vegans and a vegan diet.
She calls vegans out for a diet containing grain produced on large scale farms - farms that inevitably take the lives of those small creatures living and nesting in the grain at the time of harvest. This critique seems not only uninformed but considerably out of place considering the omnivorous diet she maintains.
Kingsolver says that vegans ignore the fact that the lives of small creatures living in grain fields are "plumb wasted" and goes on to assert that, as she puts it, without the human harvesting of animals, domestic livestock "would never have had the distinction of existing" pg. As though by bringing livestock into a miserable, inhumane existence through completely artificial means, humans are bestowing a great privilege on these animals. Kingsolver almost raised herself to throwing-the-book-across-the-room-never-to-be-picked-up-again status and only avoided this reaction by virtue of my proximity to the end of the book with this lovely gem: In regards to Thanksgiving, which Kingsolver sites as belonging to her people Oh, yes, I know the Squanto story, we replayed it to death in our primitive grade-school pageantry "Pilgrim friends!
Bury one fish beneath each corn plant!
But that hopeful affiliation ended so badly, I hate to keep bringing it up. Bygones are what they are. As much as I appreciate the message that Barbara Kingsolver intended to disseminate by producing this book that adopting a local diet will benefit not only your health and your local economy, but can have greatly positive effects globally as well , I have lost a significant amount of respect for her after reading this book.
I can not recommend it. View all 10 comments. A good message with some beautiful writing, though Kingsolver and her daughter, Camille, can adopt a rather preachy, self-important tone. And I'm sorry, but I've never encountered the "farmer stigma" that apparently runs rampant over the US. Kingsolver and family want to be more environmentally conscious so they embark on a year of being a "locavore" - a person who eats locally. The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss coupled with my own weight loss have really buoyed my desire to A keep the weight off Duh , but also B eat more naturally and more in tune with the environment.
One of my Goodreads friends had already recommended this, so when this was suggested for Book Club, I heartily voted for it. When the motivation to eat right is flagging and with a Burger King on every corner, it will flag , it's always great to turn to books and movies and documentaries and such to tell yourself that yes, this was a good choice. Like The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals before it of which, this book notes as a source , this book showcases the problems with the current industrial farming system.
If you've read any books on this or seen any documentaries, this will not be new information. But honestly when you have quotes like this: But hands-down, my favorite quote is this emphasis mine: Raising food without polluting the field or the product will always cost more than the conventional mode that externalizes costs to taxpayers and the future. But you can be sure you'll be paying for it later with cholesterol problems, more poverty-level people, and an overreliance on oil. On top of that, Kingsolver has a beautiful way with words. Her prose is really enjoyable and makes me regret that this is the first work of hers I've read.
So, I know the question: That's the impression I got of Kingsolver and her daughter, Camille. Kingsolver says outright at the beginning she doesn't expect everyone to follow this plan to the T - but then she has this condescending tone to people who don't follow this plan. As for Camille, well, the phrase "pampered child" comes to mind.
It's easy for a woman, who basically inherits a farm and whose job is EXTREMELY flexible she works from home most of the time and is a famous author , to be able to take up the second full-time job of farmer. And that's what she was for this year: This, like Joel Fuhrman's 2 pounds of vegetable plan, is very unrealistic for a lot of people.
I live in an apartment, travel A LOT, and have no interest in gardening whatsoever. Other people are single parents, or hell, just parents, who don't HAVE the time between all the other responsibilities. The other thing I wasn't fond of was the author's perceived notion that farmers are stereotyped as "harebrained hippies" and looked down upon by everyone else. To this I must say: Many times, the city person is made a joke, because he or she is so "stuffy" and doesn't "really work" and would be clueless without the farmer the latter being very true, but still rude.
And let's face it: We need farmers to educate us on good foods. Maybe I'm just a bitter, crotchety city girl who is too lazy to attempt to give gardening a chance. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to people's tone. Love your food enough to know what you're eating. View all 13 comments. I have a few questions for you: Their goal was to spend one year as locavores--eating local, organic food by growing it themselves and buying it at farmers' markets. In addition to harvesting their gardens and orchards, they raised chickens a Although I didn't plan it, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle seemed like the perfect book to be reading close to Earth Day.
In addition to harvesting their gardens and orchards, they raised chickens and turkeys, and bought lamb and dairy products. There were a few things like coffee, whole wheat flour, olive oil, and some spices that were not available locally, but were bought from fair trade farmers. Eating local foods helps by reducing our use of fossil fuels, and supports the efforts of farmers on small farms. In addition to direct transport, other fuel-thirsty steps include processing drying, milling, cutting, sorting, baking , packaging, warehousing, and refrigeration.
Barbara wrote the bulk of the book detailing her family's experiences. Steven wrote sidebars about global food problems, pesticides, politics, and agricultural subsities from the government. He also emphasized raising animals using humane conditions rather than in CAFOs concentrated animal feeding operations. Eighteen-year-old Camille was very interested in nutrition, and featured a recipe section after each chapter. I especially enjoyed reading about them making mozzarella cheese. Younger daughter Lily raised chickens and sold eggs, hoping to buy a horse someday with the funds.
The book was packed with information, sometimes getting a bit preachy, but including witty stories too. Their effort seemed a bit too harmonious considering the amount of back-breaking work involved maintaining the gardens, and canning and freezing the food, while also working other jobs. Many people may not have the time, money, land, health, or transportation to follow the suggestions in this book in a big way. But we could start by buying local ingredients for a few meals weekly, saving fossil fuels.
Farmers' markets are a good source of local foods. We can also read the signs and labels in grocery stores. For example, I live in the Northeast with three apple orchards nearby so it doesn't make sense to buy apples from Washington State, but it's appropriate to buy olive oil from California. The Kingsolver-Hopp family should be commended for their locavore experience, and their thought-provoking book. View all 7 comments. This book is good, in spite of it's lower rating.
It loses two stars for two and a half things: Kingsolver is one of the best living writers of fiction, so she has a high standard that she can't quite live up to in this book. My theory is that she is too involved in it. The same talent that allows her to write amazing pieces of fiction detract from her nonfiction in that she just knows too much detail and feels too passionately about what she is talking about. Not that I h This book is good, in spite of it's lower rating. Not that I have anything against passion, but I found myself falling asleep at times when she would drone on and on about why she loves her vegetable garden so much.
She is very wealthy and I believe this detracts from her story. She owns a farm and does not need to make any money off of it at all. That is not something that most folks can aspire to, and it provides a start contrast to her "I'm so down to earth" attitude. For example, the story about how she did farm work instead of putting much time into getting ready to go to the White House for dinner. Was that something I was supposed to relate to?! Not because I think there is anything wrong with the choice to raise animals and slaughter them. In fact, I think exemplifies a carefully considered eating ethic.
But, I could have done without the diatribe on why vegetarians are somehow in the wrong for not eating meat. It was poorly defended and totally unnecessary. Why alienate the vegetarians by casting yourself as morally superior? To be fair, I did enjoy the book. She took a lot of risks, from addressing such a political topic to writing a nonfiction book, and I respect her for that. I am still a big fan, but this book was disappointing. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here. I have always been a fan of Barbara Kingsolver's work; her novels have a comfortable quality to them that makes me return a few times except for Prodigal Summer, which I really didn't care much for. But once I discovered her nonfiction, my world changed. She was the first creative nonfiction writer who caught my eye and made me laugh, cry, and feel enraged.
Had I not read her work, I doubt I ever would have been interested in writing creative nonfiction to begin with. I tell you all of this so I have always been a fan of Barbara Kingsolver's work; her novels have a comfortable quality to them that makes me return a few times except for Prodigal Summer, which I really didn't care much for. I tell you all of this so that you can recognize any possible bias in the following statement: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a splendid book. The basic premise of the book is as follows: They allotted each person one specialty item her husband's was coffee; hers were spices like cinnamon, etc.
AVM is strong for a number of reasons. Like her previous nonfiction works High Tide in Tucson and Small Wonder , she strikes a solid balance between personal exploration and education. So in places she reflects on the entire experience--perhaps a couple pages on the appearance of asparagus and her personal and familial relationship with it, as well as a description of the patch they currently have--and then a few pages later, we learn about a particular facet of, say, the development of GM genetically modified seeds and the power they gave to agribusiness through copyright and patent laws.
This fluidity is paced fairly well--there are only occasional places where she feels too preachy or gets too personally tangential, and they're tucked in with enough interesting details to make them almost unnoticeable. Instead, she honestly highlights their struggles and joys, illuminates their reasoning for the whole project, throws in some fun anecdotes, and just generally expresses her passion for the whole subject.
Most chapters are 20 pages or less. The book is broken up even more in a pleasant way by informative sidebars from her husband Steven--which generally discuss resources, activist opportunities, laws, etc. Camille's sections are the only ones that get remotely "how-to," and that's only because of the recipes. The recipes are straightforward and, thus far, quite tasty I've already made the Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, which is hands-down one of the best summer desserts I've ever tasted or baked.
I grew up in a family who grew nearly every piece of produce it consumed, but this book was still really educational and inspiring. Kingsolver brings an exquisite eye to detail to all her descriptions of plants, seeds, etc. Camille's suggestions on cooking it proved true--it was quite tasty. Those of you who are already green thumbs will enjoy the insightful, humorous prose here; those of you whose thumbs might best be described as black can live vicariously through Kingsolver.
And folks anywhere on that continuum might be inspired, and although this won't tell you how to do everything, it can point you in the right direction. The text itself mentions a lot of resources cookbooks, seed sources, etc. You might also be prompted to try something really new for you--I had always been intimidated at the thought of making my own cheese, but the chapter on it and the resources provided has inspired me to attempt mozzarella, at least.
If that's too much for you, go check out The AVM Website to get recipes, more info on the book, a resource list, and some updates since the book's writing. This is an excellent read. The language, spelling and grammar are highly professional, a joy to read. Barbara and her husband and daughters decided to embark on a year of growing their own food, raising their own poultry and buying local food from farmers.
To this end they moved from their Arizona home to their country vacation home in the Appalachian mountains of southwest Virginia. They had prepared, of course, by renovating the house and outbuildings, planting asparagus beds and more. The hope This is an excellent read. The hopeful and personal start turns rather abruptly into a discourse on why "we don't know beans about beans" as food production and distribution has been largely mechanised and factory swamped in the US.
I enjoyed the lesson learnt from the first farmers' market they attended on a cold early spring morning. Nothing was growing so how would the family survive? They brought home a splendid haul and helped the farmers to stay in business. This continues through the early plantings, the earnest selection and purchasing of heritage breeds of chicken by Lily the youngest girl and entrepreneur in the making, and the home cooking full of aroma, taste and sizzle.
Steven Hopp, Barbara's husband, contributes gourmet bread making daily and short articles on various facets of the food economy and health. Camille, the older daughter, recounts what it was like from the point of view of being a schoolgirl, then a student committed to eating for good and not for junk.
She adds her favourite recipes. We also see a trip to friends and family including an Amish organic farm. Later the busy smallholders go for a trip to Italy. I found it very interesting that since tobacco, the mainstay of small farm economy and large farm wealth in Virginia, lost its subsidies, the small farmers have mostly taken to growing organic produce.
This provides them with a premium product so they can gain a better price. Not everyone has a back forty acres to use to grow food. Not even an acre. But we can make better choices, support local goods instead of imported or long haul goods, and we can shop at farmers' markets. I love the sense of community shown. Poultry rearing is part of the self-sufficiency lifestyle, and if you don't like the account of killing and plucking for the freezer, skip ahead to where Barbara decides that her turkey flock, at nine months old among the oldest living turkeys in America, will have the chance to breed naturally.
Heritage breeds - unlike the large white fowl fast-track raised for the oven - are hardier and physically able to mate; but no book on husbandry contained any instructions because turkeys have been artificially mated and reared since the middle of the twentieth century. This book is packed with information about American artificial food choices. DJ is green with a picture of hands holding red and white beans. An account of an award winning author and her family's journey eating home grown and locally grown foods.
Their good humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a feed culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Cova Rare Books Published: May not contain Access Codes or Supplements.
Cloud 9 Books Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! Better World Books Condition: Second Story Books Published: Montclair Book Center Condition: The Saint Bookstore Condition: Andre Strong Bookseller Published: Fine in Fine dust jacket. First British Edition; First Printing. Stiff unmarked book in crisp dust jacket with just a suggeston of shelflife. Fine in Fine dust jacket Edition: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.
The Edmonton Book Store Published: Near fine with skewed spine in fine dust jacket, in mylar cover. Dust Jacket with price is in a new clear protective Mylar sleeve.. We wanted to live in a place that could feed us: Barbara Kingsolver opens her home to us, as she and her family attempt a year of eating only local food, much of it from their own garden. Inspired by the flavours a. Ria Christie Collections Condition: Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request.
Water damage to dust jacket only. Unless Listed in this decription, VG or Better. Moody Books, Inc Published: Faber and Faber, This is the story of how her family for one year tried to feed themselves animals and vegetables whose provenance they really knew, and how it changed their life. Brown boards with gold writing to the spine. Dj slight shelf wear and bumping to the top. Nice tight binding and clean pages. Fine in Fine DJ.