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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
An interesting, eye-opening account of one family's year of living and eating locally-grown and produced foods. No grocery store produce, eating seasonally, raising (and harvesting) their own poultry... you name it. Recipes are included, which gave me some good ideas for delicious seasonal dishes. Recommended if you're at all interested in food, foodies, locavores, etc!
I liked this. And I will remember a lot of it. I liked that the audio book also featured her daughter and husband. But I found her tone too often self-congratulatory, and that was annoying. However, I did learn some things, the story of some of the food growing and processing was interesting, and it did help me re-commit to eating more locally.
March 9:
I am only three discs into this book (and I have to admit I wish the main part weren't read by Barbara Kingsolver-though I like her daughter and Steven Hopp reading their parts just fine-because she has some very distracting pronunciations and I am not a fan of her pacing. However, this is a minor irritation) but I feel so vindicated already! Especially regarding asparagus!
Seriously, I have always been so snobby when it comes to produce during the year. I have a very special loathing for out-of-season fruits. Cherries in January? GROSS! Melons in March? Horf! My husband has yet to understand this distaste of mine and several friends wonder at my sanity when I refuse to eat berries in the late winter or early spring. I come from a family of gardeners and we've always eaten fresh fruits and veggies when they came out of the garden so I've grown to expect certain foods at certain times of the year.
And now someone is telling me I was right all along? Yay! This makes me feel so very superb.
I've been trying to get my family to sign up for local meat again - my parents used to buy pieces of pigs and cows from nearby ranches. I hate bacon; I think it's disgusting. But bacon that comes from a real pig that used to live a few miles away and is nice and thick and not salty and not all fat? It's super delicious. And it costs less than buying meat from the grocery store in the long run. However, it's a big chunk of money all at once, so it seems expensive. But when you go in with others, the cost gets less and if you find someone with a big freezer, you can share with them, too, if they promise to house the meat for you. It's all win-win. I just need to convince someone to do this with me.
Mostly, I am totally in love with all the wonderful resources listed in the book (so far). Seed catalogs, organic/local food websites, farmers market information - it is making me so antsy for spring and summer! I can't wait to get into the garden! I hadn't planned on planting much this year but now I'm all gung-ho. I will become a farmers marketer again! I am excited about peach season (because Colorado peaches are way better than Georgia peaches. I can say this having experienced both straight from the tree). And I think I'm going to get involved in the community garden. They ask that people contact them by a certain time in order to reserve a space, but I want to plant garlic and that happens in the fall, so I will reserve a space for that time period instead of the spring planting season.
This book makes me very excited. I will continue to listen to Ms. Kingsolver's strange pronunciations and oversimplified speech patterns and I will LIKE IT!
March 22:
Still listening. Ms. Kingsolver's pronunciations still trip me up from time to time but I've mostly gotten used to her speech patterns, now.
I want to say, though - she is dead wrong about killing animals for meat. I think she is probably right in that most people think they could never do that because they imagine the sentimental attachmentments they have to animals, in general. However, it really is just as bad as people imagine it might but...just for totally different reasons. Killing, plucking and dressing chickens is a horrible summertime activity. It's unpleasant in all its aspects. I couldn't deal with raw chicken for years afterward. I imagine butchering a cow or pig is not too different from doing the same to a deer. Even rabbits are unpleasant to take apart and chop-up. Maybe this means I don't have a future as a serial killer, but making your own meat, as it were, is not the non-chalant process Ms. Kingsolver seems to describe. That's why it's best to buy a cow or a pig or whatever from a nearby farm and then pay for it to be butchered and packaged away from your backyard. And I think I will always get my chicken from a store. Seeing pinfeathers sticking out of the flesh, or, worse, the yellowyorangey goo oozing from the feather holes...ugh, it makes my spine wobbly and not in a good way.
March 31:
Ok! I am done!
I feel I just loved this book.
I didn't like the reading and I felt Ms. Kingsolver tended to go on a bit too much at times, but those were minor concerns in light of my overall enjoyment of the book. In addition, it made me feel very excited, very happy, to get into the earth and grow things this season. It made me want to be more active in community gardening and sharing produce with friends and family. I even called my mother and told her I'd help her with canning this year.
I am going to buy this book so I can have it on hand as a reference resource and for whenever I need a little pick me up.
I am only three discs into this book (and I have to admit I wish the main part weren't read by Barbara Kingsolver-though I like her daughter and Steven Hopp reading their parts just fine-because she has some very distracting pronunciations and I am not a fan of her pacing. However, this is a minor irritation) but I feel so vindicated already! Especially regarding asparagus!
Seriously, I have always been so snobby when it comes to produce during the year. I have a very special loathing for out-of-season fruits. Cherries in January? GROSS! Melons in March? Horf! My husband has yet to understand this distaste of mine and several friends wonder at my sanity when I refuse to eat berries in the late winter or early spring. I come from a family of gardeners and we've always eaten fresh fruits and veggies when they came out of the garden so I've grown to expect certain foods at certain times of the year.
And now someone is telling me I was right all along? Yay! This makes me feel so very superb.
I've been trying to get my family to sign up for local meat again - my parents used to buy pieces of pigs and cows from nearby ranches. I hate bacon; I think it's disgusting. But bacon that comes from a real pig that used to live a few miles away and is nice and thick and not salty and not all fat? It's super delicious. And it costs less than buying meat from the grocery store in the long run. However, it's a big chunk of money all at once, so it seems expensive. But when you go in with others, the cost gets less and if you find someone with a big freezer, you can share with them, too, if they promise to house the meat for you. It's all win-win. I just need to convince someone to do this with me.
Mostly, I am totally in love with all the wonderful resources listed in the book (so far). Seed catalogs, organic/local food websites, farmers market information - it is making me so antsy for spring and summer! I can't wait to get into the garden! I hadn't planned on planting much this year but now I'm all gung-ho. I will become a farmers marketer again! I am excited about peach season (because Colorado peaches are way better than Georgia peaches. I can say this having experienced both straight from the tree). And I think I'm going to get involved in the community garden. They ask that people contact them by a certain time in order to reserve a space, but I want to plant garlic and that happens in the fall, so I will reserve a space for that time period instead of the spring planting season.
This book makes me very excited. I will continue to listen to Ms. Kingsolver's strange pronunciations and oversimplified speech patterns and I will LIKE IT!
March 22:
Still listening. Ms. Kingsolver's pronunciations still trip me up from time to time but I've mostly gotten used to her speech patterns, now.
I want to say, though - she is dead wrong about killing animals for meat. I think she is probably right in that most people think they could never do that because they imagine the sentimental attachmentments they have to animals, in general. However, it really is just as bad as people imagine it might but...just for totally different reasons. Killing, plucking and dressing chickens is a horrible summertime activity. It's unpleasant in all its aspects. I couldn't deal with raw chicken for years afterward. I imagine butchering a cow or pig is not too different from doing the same to a deer. Even rabbits are unpleasant to take apart and chop-up. Maybe this means I don't have a future as a serial killer, but making your own meat, as it were, is not the non-chalant process Ms. Kingsolver seems to describe. That's why it's best to buy a cow or a pig or whatever from a nearby farm and then pay for it to be butchered and packaged away from your backyard. And I think I will always get my chicken from a store. Seeing pinfeathers sticking out of the flesh, or, worse, the yellowyorangey goo oozing from the feather holes...ugh, it makes my spine wobbly and not in a good way.
March 31:
Ok! I am done!
I feel I just loved this book.
I didn't like the reading and I felt Ms. Kingsolver tended to go on a bit too much at times, but those were minor concerns in light of my overall enjoyment of the book. In addition, it made me feel very excited, very happy, to get into the earth and grow things this season. It made me want to be more active in community gardening and sharing produce with friends and family. I even called my mother and told her I'd help her with canning this year.
I am going to buy this book so I can have it on hand as a reference resource and for whenever I need a little pick me up.
This book was inspiring--especially because the place where Barbara Kingsolver and her family had their year of eating locally is not far from where I live. I learned a lot about planning ahead for year-round eating and am even more strengthened in my resolve to do at least some canning each year and to buy local as much as possible.
I really enjoyed this book. I had heard about it when it was first published and kind of tucked the title away in the back of my mind for "one of those days". I finally got around to reading it and I was really pleasantly surprised. I don't know what I was expecting but I found this book fascinating. It's an account of Kingsolver and her family's one year commitment to eat locally - either what they grow in their garden, raise on their farm, or buy within a hour commute of their Southwestern VA farm. It raises awareness of the small farm and farmer, about what we eat and how we support the oil/gas industry, and even basic nutrition. With additonal sidebar essays by her daughter Camille and her husband I found that I really didn't want to see this book end. I even went so far to look up the recipes quoted in the book on their website: www.vegetableanimalmiracle.com. While I know it's a bit unrealistic for most of us to live how they did for a year (and how they continue to live), it has made me appreciate our local growers and cemeted my decision to support our local farmers and farmers markets once they open for their season.
Kingsolver is a wonderful writer but comes off as verrrry preachy in this book. I felt condescended to and even defensive as a reader, despite the fact that many of the food values she espouses are ones that I support and try to adopt myself. I also found the gap between Kingsolver's salt-of-the-earth way she portrays herself and her privilege sort of undermined the message, especially for readers who have nowhere near the level of resources that she does. For me the most interesting parts described the literal care and feeding of vegetables and poultry.
I had a mostly love/slightly hate relationship with this book. Some of the reviews I’ve read focus on the author’s self righteous stance. I can only counter that I am very sure of my truths and ideals, too. Why would I deny another the right to that surety?
With all of that out of the way, Kingsolver’s love & stewardship of this planet absolutely align with my values.
Shockingly, this book was written in 2007, and I fear many of the problems detailed here relating to big Agra, big Pharma, and the abomination of factory farming are still with us. Please read and enjoy her experience and information. And if you are guided toward changing some habits, do so. It’s not an all or nothing proposition. ✌️
With all of that out of the way, Kingsolver’s love & stewardship of this planet absolutely align with my values.
Shockingly, this book was written in 2007, and I fear many of the problems detailed here relating to big Agra, big Pharma, and the abomination of factory farming are still with us. Please read and enjoy her experience and information. And if you are guided toward changing some habits, do so. It’s not an all or nothing proposition. ✌️
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I really liked this book. It's making me think hard about the way my family eats.
While I didn't agree with their take on veganism & vegetarianism, the rest of the book taught me a lot. I'll spend more money at the local farmer's markets & less at the organic grocery stores. I'll also try to eat more seasonally.