Rather than consider this a 'how-to' book, I believe that the best use for it is inspiration for our own eat local lives - while I may not be able to grow my own food, there are other nuggets of information that I can take from the book and apply to my own life. The Kingsolver family situation is unique - they cultivate a small farm / large garden, she works at home and makes the time and has the know-how to create delicious local meals for her family. Kingsolver freely admits that this type of diet is possible if you know how, and are willing, to cook. While I didn't find Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to be as pedantic as my friend did, Ms. Kingsolver's point-of-view, saying that it wasn't possible for the majority of many Americans. I talked to a friend recently who was frustrated with Ms. No stone tablets.' Our Thanksgiving dinner would include a little California olive oil, a pinch of African nutmeg, and some Virginia flour that likely contained wheat from Pennsylvania and points north.' We always explained, 'We're converts in progress, not preachers. People who knew about our project would get flustered sometimes about inviting us, or when seeing us in a restaurant would behave as if they'd caught the cat eating the canary. We still ate out at restaurants with friends sometimes, and happily accepted invitations to dine at their homes. But it always remained fascination, not fanatacism. Our locavore project nudged us constantly toward new personal bests. Kingsolver's calm moderation that made me love this book. More than her devoted point-of-view about eating locally, it was Ms. Kingsolver's family, living in Virginia, who manages to eat a locally-based diet for a year mainly subsisting of their family garden. Kingsolver's daughter is a college student who peppered the book with her point-of-view and recipes relating to the text. Hopp wrote intriguing sidebars that are politically and policy based. Kingsolver wrote the main narrative while Mr. Hopp, and her daughter Camille Kingsolver. And when one of the best writers of our time, Barbara Kingsolver, chooses to write about eating local, I chomp at the bit to read the book.īarbara Kingsolver wrote Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in conjunction with her husband, Steven L. While overall it's amazing and overwhelming, when a new perspective on the subject comes along, I am very excited. Lean in close and I'll tell you a secret: Though I am one of the founders of the Locavores and the editor of the Eat Local Challenge website, I still sometimes become a bit fatigued about the ubiquitousness of information about eating locally.

Animal vegetable miracle