Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

 From http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com

I hosted book club this month (tonight, in fact), and as hostess it fell upon me to decide upon this month’s selection.  Given that most of the books on my to-read list are still in hardback (and we try to stick with paperbacks when possible), I decided to go with a book that had been on my list for quite a while—Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I am not sure how it went over with the rest of the group (I’m guessing it wasn’t widely loved), but I really enjoyed it.

While Barbara Kingsolver is a critically acclaimed novelist, AVM is more of a memoir telling the story of her family’s experiences trying to eat only locally grown/produced food for a year. That’s right everything they eat—both animal and vegetable—had to come from within a couple hundred miles of their home in Southwestern Virginia (although each family member is allowed to pick one non-local thing to continue eating which ranged from coffee to dried fruit). Their task is made somewhat easier by the fact they live on a farm and put significant effort into growing vegetables and even raising chickens and turkeys which they then eat.  In addition to the story of their life on the farm and their experiences with eating locally, there is a lot of factual information about American farming, the food industry, as well as seasonal menus and recipe ideas.

Although I found certain portions of the narrative a bit preachy or a little too in the weeds at times (e.g., there was a lot of information about growing asparagus, some of which made my eyes glaze over), I was generally engaged. Once I got into it, it was a fairly quick read. Kingsolver can obviously tell a story and I really enjoyed the life on the farm vignettes in particular.

But more importantly, it also made me think. Most of the time, I buy produce without really considering where it comes from. I think we do a pretty good job of not buying a lot of things out of season (with the exception of bananas which Jason eats every single morning and the lettuces and tomatoes we generally eat year round), but that isn’t necessarily a conscious decision.  Kingsolver makes a good case for eating locally—not only are there significant environmental benefits from not eating food that has to be trucked or flown in from halfway across the country or even the world, but it also means supporting local farmers and eating food when it was meant to be eaten, when it is at its peak of freshness and flavor. Those are all things I can get behind.

One day when we have the space, I am sure that we will have a garden that includes fruits and vegetables. Until then I am going to try and make more of a concerted effort to eat in-season and buy locally where we can. We are really fortunate to have a large weekly farmers market at our doorstep right now and I am going to take full advantage while I can. I’ve also been thinking about participating in community-sponsored agriculture (CSA) for awhile now so maybe this year will be the year I actually take the plunge. Big changes often start with small steps—we’ll see what happens!