Nancy Duncan, children's librarian at Red Land Community Library, reviews "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle":
What a commitment! The family of novelist Barbara Kingsolver -- two parents, two daughters -- pledges to live off the land for one year, eating only locally grown food and meat. They move from their home in Tucson to a family farm in the Appalachians of Virginia. They start their experiment in March, just when the ground is waking up from winter.
I found the book interesting, if sometimes a bit heavy handed. My eyes glazed over reading about the amount of fossil fuels used to transport food from farms to my grocery store. Kingsolver writes well, and with humor. I just can't imagine the amount of work that went into this project. Never mind planting, weeding and harvesting the crops, you then have to can and preserve them so your family will have enough food put by to see you until the next planting season.
I did learn a lot, sometimes about things I never thought about. I'm not going to till over my backyard, but I am more conscious about being aware of my food choices. It took me a long time in the produce section of Giant to decide what to buy!
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