Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

[wrenb]

On Friday my MIL forwarded me an email about Barbara Kingsolver's new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Not an hour later I heard an interview with Kingsolver on WPR. I very rarely buy hardcovers, but I immediately made plans to pick up a copy at A Room of One's Own (indy feminist bookstore downtown).

Wow. I just started reading it last night. At lunchtime today I had to force myself back to work. It is well-written, well-thought out, sensible, and just plain cool. It's sort of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Phase 2: Implementation. A little over the top, because a really ordinary middle class family living on locally grown food might not make a great book. Kingsolver lives on a farmette, so I think they raised chickens and had a bunch of vegetable growing space. But still, it rocks.

And there are menus and recipes! I was left wondering about how to eat sustainably on a day to day basis when I finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. This book has the suggestions I was looking for.

Not that I'm anywhere near finished reading it. Their year-long experiment began in April, and I'm currently up to the May chapter. The only frustrating thing I've found so far is geographical. Kingsolver lives in Appalachia; I live in Wisconsin. She keeps talking about what month certain vegetables are available in rather than what portion of spring or summer. So I'm left feeling like the prime lettuce growing season has passed me by and my lettuces are just little seeds in my garden. In fact we're far enough behind that my vegetables will probably do just fine.

Go read this book! Then eat some local produce. :)

Comments

[wuduaelfen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation. I love reading Barbara Kingsolver and raising chickens is a not-so-secret plan of mine. :-)

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Tigers and Strawberries is a blog you might like. Athens OH area family who have been doing "eat local" for over a year now. Barbara usually doesn't make a big deal out of eating local, she just does it.

I was just really hungry is another blog in a similar vein. Maki lives in Switzerland, is of Japanese background, and has lived all over. In season for Switzerland seems to match up some with here (notably rhubarb).

Neither one will help with vegetable seasons, but antique cookbooks probably will. Cooking for Two is one that might be helpful. The first edition was around 1902, tho the copy I saw was around 1940. I didn't grab it because it was pretty obviously edited to death by that late an edition. How to Eat Better for Less Money by James Beard is also helpful on the subject *plots how to extract that one from mom's library*. Also look for old editions of Joy, ideally pre 1970s.

Also, we can try pumping my parents' collective brain.

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

When I really think about it, seasons are easily determined by watching the Dane County Farmer's Market (http://www.madfarmmkt.org/). I get an email from them every Friday with a list of what's likely to be there, what's starting and what's ending. I have the MACSAC (http://www.macsac.org/) cookbook, which is a great resource for "What's this vegetable and how do I cook it?". And when in doubt, I stirfry. :)

Thanks for the blog links! I'm always interested in seeing how real people do this stuff without going to extremes.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it helps to every so often get a kick in the pants that it can be done without a garden, even in one of Ohio's poorest counties. Both blogs are also really handy for veggie ID. After reading them for a while, I'm much better at identifying some of the odd (to me) looking Asian veggies that were common at our market in CA. I started out being able to ID bitter melon and yard long beans, and now I may not have a good name in English for the various whatsits, but I at least know how to cook 'em :).