Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver is well-known for her fiction writing, including The Bean Trees, Prodigal Summer, etc. But her latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an account of her family’s experience “eating locally.” Concerned with the consumption of the fossil fuels required to transport out of season fruits and vegetables, Kingsolver and her family leave their home in Phoenix and move to a farm in Appalachia. Here, they decide that for one year, they will eat only items that they grow themselves or that they can buy from local farmers. They create a large garden with every vegetable imaginable and acquire a flock of turkeys and chickens. During the summer, they eat fresh fruits and vegetables, make their own bread and cheese, slaughter their own chickens and turkeys and make their own sausage. They also can copious amounts of tomatoes and other vegetables to sustain them through the winter.

While Kingsolver presents a good argument for eating locally, it’s hard to imagine never eating bananas (since they aren’t grown locally her family did not eat them) and only eating asparagus during the couple of weeks in June when it is in season. It's also hard to imagine keeping up with a garden that size while working a 9 to 5 job, or keeping a flock of chickens when you live in the suburbs. Nevertheless, Kingsolver's passion for her farm and their lifestyle is inspiring. Her tales of her family's experiences planting, weeding, picking, pulling, canning, cooking and eating bring the quiet little farm to life in the reader's mind. She provides interesting information about the food industry and examples of easy changes we can all make to eat food that is healthier for ourselves and the planet. She also includes recipes and an illuminating chapter on turkey mating. Seriously.