Barbara Kingsolver, best known (at least in my house) for her excellent and engaging fiction, invites readers into her own house in this very compelling read. It chronicles the Kingsolver/Hopp family in an ambitious year-long food experiment: eating only what they have grown themselves or purchased from local producers. The chapters are full of entertaining and fascinating stories of raising heirloom turkeys, maintaining an impressive garden, shopping at local farmers’ markets, and even canning vegetables and home-making cheese.
This lifestyle experiment was largely a reaction against an American food culture that is corporation driven, environmentally irresponsible, and nutritionally inadequate. Yet, this book is not a preachy diatribe against a dependency on fossil fuels and greedy CEOs, as one might expect. Rather, the tone is uplifting and inspiring: a celebration of the pleasures of community, family, and simplicity. It’s not about saying “no” to enticing guilty pleasures, but saying yes to savoring delicious food, spending time together in the kitchen, and enjoying the fruit of your own labor.
I do not have a green thumb, and I am really proud just to get a home-cooked dinner on the table, even if it contains non-organic meat and veggies that were frozen in California. But Kingsolver’s argument is compelling, and I’m thinking of small ways that I can try to think more about the food we consume.
I loved this one! It really made me want to grow a garden and go to the farmer’s market! If only my thumb wasn’t black.
I know! It actually made me think that making my own cheese and canning vegetables sounded like fun. But I’m trying not to get too carried away…so I’m going to grow one tomato plant in a bucket this spring and see where I go from there.