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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Localvore Experiences,
By
This review is from: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life (Hardcover)
This book traces a year in the life of Kingsolver's family as they adopt and adjust to a diet based on locally produced foods. At the beginning of this narrative, Kingsolver and her family move from Arizona to Virginia, where they have family ties, and where subsisting on local foods will be much easier because of the more ameniable climate. Arriving after gardening season is over, they bide their time before switching to a diet of local foods until March, when locally produced vegetables first begin appearing in their local farmers' market. From then on, they fill their larder with locally grown foods, making exceptions only for certain "essentials" such as coffee or olive oil. Through spirited monthly essays, Kingsolver describes their food related activities and choices in the ensuing year. These are supplemented with short commentaries and recipes by her daughter Camille Kingsolver and informative notes by her husband Steven Hopp.
This book is quite enjoyable to read, especially for those who find Kingsolver's points of view well-aligned with their own. For those who don't agree with Kingsolver's premises, some of her excurses may be hard to relate to. However, virtually everyone can learn from this book some valuable tips about providing an abundance of healthy food on a budget. As Kingsolver points out, consuming local foods is not about being bringing a food elitist attitude to the plate--it's not (necessarily) a political approach to eating either. Actually, it wasn't all that long ago when virtually everyone everywhere ate a local diet because that was the food that was available. It was only when transportation became fast and cheap that non-local options even became available. With energy prices rising, consumers may finally become reacquainted with the products of their own regions, and as Kingsolver points out, many will be shocked at the flavors they have been missing over the years when their diet was comprised of foods that have been bred for travel stability, not taste. Serious gardeners and homesteaders will recognize many scenes from Kingsolver's year: the arrival of the day-old chicks in the mail, more zucchini than an army could possibly eat, canning days during tomato season. None of Kingsolver's narratives describe anything out of the ordinary. That's just the point--her experiment in local living is not an extraordinary adventure of a family teetering on the edge of starvation, but a healthy, enjoyable, affordable way of life that could be available to all. It's well worth the effort.
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