animal, vegetable, miracle

I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on Sunday. I thank Sarah for loaning it to me as it was yet another book on the endless list of "I want to own that's" which, somehow, while standing in Chapters, I never relinquish my cheap genes and "just buy it already".
Sarah saved the day, or, really, the week since it was so meaty it took me that long to digest.

I liked Crunchy Cons better, though, in the end, but perhaps the two shouldn't truly be compared since Barbara's novel included delicious sounding recipes (for the most part) and fewer political statements (which I love reading). She is a great writer, in my opinion.
I also liked reading what her oldest daughter thought about the whole experiment.

I remain unmoved, largely, though the book would be a great addition to one of my shelves.

I simply don't live in a happy sunshine state nor do I have acres (not even one) of land to cultivate. Not to mention anything other than square foot gardening at this point chafes me, as well it should because the whole concept is brilliant and highly successful.

I also have absolutely no inclination to be even as purist as I feel Barbara's family was in their purposing to only eat either what they grew or others had grown (all organically) within a 100 mile radius of their home.
That would get me the following, but only July- September:
green beans
snow peas
zucchini
cucumbers
garlic (maybe)
onions
tomatoes
bitter lettuce (not on purpose)
peppers of unusually small size
strawberries
eggplant (to which I recently converted because I learned to pick them small)
nastutium flowers

from others ... corn. farm after farm of corn. for at least 100 "miles"

ok, so maybe I exaggurate, but my reality isn't hers. I appreciated the fact that she said so in her book several times, too. If she lived where the sun only shines for half the year, and she saw a head of broccoli that looked good, even though it clearly had to have come from Cali, she would buy it too.

I didn't embrace her talk on feminism or evolution, but this I did appreciate ... a LOT

"When we traded homemaking for careers, we were implicitly promised economic independence and worldly influence. But a devil of a bargain it has turned out to be in terms of daily life ... A lot of us are wishing for a way back home, to the place where wear and care and feeding isn't zookeeper's duty, but something happier and more creative ... It's easy for any of us to claim no time for cooking; harder to look at what we're doing instead, and why every bit of it is presumed more worthy."

big, fat LIKE.