Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Must Read!

The non-fiction book I read was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. It follows their challenge to eat "locavore" style for a year--eating only foods that are grown locally, not shipped halfway around the country or world. With their small farm property in the Appalachians, the family of four managed to sustain themselves from spring to spring through gardening, tending their flock of chickens and turkeys, and buying from the local farmer's market. It's not a story of, "Do they make it," but rather, "HOW do they make it?"

The book caught my interest right away since I myself am an avid gardener. Although it's difficult to grow vegetables in my yard; about 90% of it is shaded by our elderly oaks and ashes. I could easily relate to Barbara's labor of love to manually de-weed between the thorny pumpkin and cucumber leaves, plucking those nasty finger-sized hornworms off of the tomato plants, canning the 54lbs of strawberries and 86 ears of corn, saving seeds, and the pure satisfaction that the taste indeed is richer than the watered-down lumps of plant matter found in supermarkets today.

I feel like the book did it's intended purpose: get me aware about where my food comes from and what it went through to reach me. I've pondered about the ethical issues surrounding both the meat and produce industry more than usual. Right now I feel like if I was given the choice, I'd go the extra mile to get organically grown produce to help the workers, soil, and ecosystem from the damaging conventional means of farming, especially if it was local.

Overall, this book is worth reading no matter your location on the reading spectrum. Both casual readers and inspiration-seeking readers can enjoy the story.