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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
You only need to read this book if you are human and eat.
My biggest issue with this book is that now I was to live on an acreage.
My biggest issue with this book is that now I was to live on an acreage.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
I read this book for the first time in 2008 when I was living in a cramped balcony-less city apartment. I felt stifled and claustrophobic and at the time this book was completely mind-blowing. My mother still buys strawberries year round and just dumps a bunch of sugar on them in the winter months so they're sweet enough to eat. You can open my parent's fridge any time of year and see the same produce year-round. We had a few garden beds growing up but the surrounding pine trees grew tall enough to block out the sun by the time I was in middle school and I never paid much attention anyways. Up until this point, eating seasonally was a completely foreign concept to me. I loved the idea of eating locally, learning how to grow your own food and if anything, being aware of where food came from. I had just never thought about how far bananas had to travel to get to my shopping cart.
I'm not sure if it's society or my awareness and knowledge but rereading this book made me realize just how much things have changed. First of all, I got the hell out of the cramped city apartment and moved to an area where we could actually afford to buy land and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. I'm also much more aware of seasonal produce and make an effort to buy strawberries in Spring and squash in the Fall. This time around I was much less interested in the preachy scoldings of the food industry and its devastating impacts on environment and nutrition. Blah blah I get it...it just seems so shameful and pessimistic but when I spend summer Saturdays wandering around the bustling local farmer's market with barely enough room to walk or see the recent expansion of organic produce in the local grocery store I wonder, is this due to my awareness or did these books really make change? It's interesting to think about and makes me think that the human race may not be doomed after all. In any case I think the stories explaining what she grew/raised and how she harvested are more interesting than hearing about how we're using all our resources up and everyone's going to die or the world will blow up. I get it. Let's make changes and think more positively! In just a few short weeks (or several loooong agonizing weeks) I will finally have my own plot of land to garden and I'm chomping at the bit to get my hands dirty! This is one of the books up moved up the queue to help me prepare...sort of. It's early March, winter is nearly over and Spring is just around the corner and I really can't wait to soak up some sun and start growing.
I'm not sure if it's society or my awareness and knowledge but rereading this book made me realize just how much things have changed. First of all, I got the hell out of the cramped city apartment and moved to an area where we could actually afford to buy land and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. I'm also much more aware of seasonal produce and make an effort to buy strawberries in Spring and squash in the Fall. This time around I was much less interested in the preachy scoldings of the food industry and its devastating impacts on environment and nutrition. Blah blah I get it...it just seems so shameful and pessimistic but when I spend summer Saturdays wandering around the bustling local farmer's market with barely enough room to walk or see the recent expansion of organic produce in the local grocery store I wonder, is this due to my awareness or did these books really make change? It's interesting to think about and makes me think that the human race may not be doomed after all. In any case I think the stories explaining what she grew/raised and how she harvested are more interesting than hearing about how we're using all our resources up and everyone's going to die or the world will blow up. I get it. Let's make changes and think more positively! In just a few short weeks (or several loooong agonizing weeks) I will finally have my own plot of land to garden and I'm chomping at the bit to get my hands dirty! This is one of the books up moved up the queue to help me prepare...sort of. It's early March, winter is nearly over and Spring is just around the corner and I really can't wait to soak up some sun and start growing.
A really compelling look at something we do so often with little or no thought. The author and her family definitely take things to the extreme and she paints a rather sickeningly sweet picture of farm life. But, adopting a few of their habits would probably do us a lot of good. Definitely makes me think twice about what I eat.
This was a very enjoyable book. Author Barbara Kingsolver and her husband and 2 daughters moved to her husband's family home in Virginia, and spent a year eating locally. They grew vegetables in a large garden, her youngest daughter raised chickens, Kingsolver raised turkeys, and they shopped from local farmer's markets. They did a lot of canning and preserving to carry them through the winter months. They even butchered some of their animals for meat. She does a great job of stressing the importance of eating seasonal foods (and enjoying and appreciating them that much more). Her daughter contributes delightful short essays throughout the book and recipes. In addition to their eating experience, the author brings in lots of information about problems with the way we eat today - genetically modified food, big agriculture, the cost in resources of shipping food from all over the world, lack of diversity of plant species and crops and animal breeds, poor treatment of animals raised in concentrated animal feeding lots, and the overall poor quality of much processed foods. Their experiment is admirable, and I learned a lot. However, I think doing this would be a stretch for most people. It requires lots of planning and preparation, time for cooking and putting up food and gardening, and seeking out local sources. Hopefully this will be more achievable in the future as going green and sustainable living becomes more popular.
Love Barbara Kingsolver and the topic of local, seasonal eating. Book gets a bit preachy at times, but the recipes are awesome and the writing is wonderful.
I loved this book so much. It’s amazing that even being written over 10 years ago, so much that this book talks about rings true. I’m hoping to have a homestead one day and I think about this book and how the authors family went about this year of fiercely local eating ALL the time. I will probably re-read and have been recommending this book to everyone.
It's challenging, in a lifestyle sense, but the author's worldview made me want to throw the book more than once. Read only if you can ignore the preachy, know-it-all tone.