Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Encyclopedia
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is a non-fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver
detailing her family's attempt to eat only locally grown food for an entire year.
The book revolves around the concept of improving the family's diet by eating only foods that her family was able to grow themselves. Kingsolver, along with her husband and daughters, start a farm in Virginia
where they grow and can
different varieties of tomato
es, learn about rooster husbandry, make cheese
, and adjust to eating foods only when they are locally in season. The book contrasts this with the ecological costs of growing food in factory farms, transporting it thousands of miles, and adding chemical preservatives so it will not spoil.
An excerpt was published in the May/June 2007 issue of Mother Jones magazine, and is available online. There are also audio files of a May 16, 2007 discussion between Kingsolver and her husband at an hour-long presentation at a bookstore in Corte Madera, California
.
magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #7. Rick Bass wrote in The Boston Globe that "this text will fold quietly into the reader's consciousness, with affecting grace and dignity, because of its prose and sensibilities." and that "Kingsolver is no pious soapboxer, but instead explores these ideas with enthusiasm and the awe of discovery."
Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...
detailing her family's attempt to eat only locally grown food for an entire year.
The book revolves around the concept of improving the family's diet by eating only foods that her family was able to grow themselves. Kingsolver, along with her husband and daughters, start a farm in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
where they grow and can
Canning
Canning is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years, although under specific circumstances a freeze-dried canned product, such as canned, dried lentils, can last as...
different varieties of tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
es, learn about rooster husbandry, make cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, and adjust to eating foods only when they are locally in season. The book contrasts this with the ecological costs of growing food in factory farms, transporting it thousands of miles, and adding chemical preservatives so it will not spoil.
An excerpt was published in the May/June 2007 issue of Mother Jones magazine, and is available online. There are also audio files of a May 16, 2007 discussion between Kingsolver and her husband at an hour-long presentation at a bookstore in Corte Madera, California
Corte Madera, California
Corte Madera is an incorporated town in Marin County, California, United States. Corte Madera is located south of San Rafael, at an elevation of 39 feet . The population was 9,253 at the 2010 census...
.
Critical reception
TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #7. Rick Bass wrote in The Boston Globe that "this text will fold quietly into the reader's consciousness, with affecting grace and dignity, because of its prose and sensibilities." and that "Kingsolver is no pious soapboxer, but instead explores these ideas with enthusiasm and the awe of discovery."
External links
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle official website
- Good Eatin' Barbara Kingsolver grows her own, the Boston Phoenix
See also
- Locavore
- Local foodLocal foodLocal food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...