Back in January I wrote about the 2009 Pierce County Reads Program. I am a bit late in noticing that our neighbors just over in Tacoma are having their own One Community, One Book program this year. And Tacoma’s chosen book is none other than Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle a very thoughtful and at times both literary and culinary memoir of the year that Kingsolver, her life partner (whom I don’t believe she ever refers to as her “husband”) Steven L Hopp and her daughters, college age Camille and Lily who is still in elementary school decide to spend a year living on a farm they own in the Appalachian area of Virginia, eating only foods that are locally grown and raised. As the book begins the intrepid family sets out from their home in Phoenix and heads for Appalaicha to go “back to the land”.
This family’s story, it turns out is actually a good bit more complicated than the ‘city slicks struggle to go country’ sort of shtick that I remember from a very old television show called “Green Acres”. Both Kingsolver and Hopp it turns out grew up as farm children and have a lifetime of experience with gardening to provide their family with fresh produce. The family’s locavore year and Ms. Kingsolver’s book chronicling their experience are an A–Z education in the cold, stark realities of food that many or perhaps most urban/suburban dwellers have really no concept of.
Educated though I was by this intimate and both literary and culinary journey that the family chose to share, I have to say that as a city boy and suburban dweller, I could no more do all of the intense work that this family did to raise their own poutlry, make their own butter and cheese, grow most all of their fruits, vegetables, grains and herbs and to can and freeze and otherwise preserve the bounty of their very hard earned harvest to last them through the lean, cruel months of late winter and early spring than I could hope to walk on the moon next week. But I suspect that the real value in this book is less that a handful may try to duplicate this family’s experiment and much more in giving those of us who think of food as coming from supermarkets a very hands on and in depth understanding of just what goes into producing a year’s food.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle– Very Highly Recommended. Buy Now $14.95
