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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Animal Vegetable Miracle A Year of Food Life
Author: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat. "As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the ...  more » Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet. "This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."
ISBN-13: 9781439560082
ISBN-10: 1439560080
Publication Date: 10/8/2008
Pages: 386
Edition: Reprint
Rating:
  • Currently 4.4/5 Stars.
 4

4.4 stars, based on 4 ratings
Book Type: Library Binding
Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

jkitil avatar reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 18
A beautiful story about a life of creating sustainable agriculture. I learned about how asparagus is grown and that lettuce grows into a tall flower! It has made me appreciate the local Farmer's Market, which I go every Sunday now.
reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 14
The Kingsolver's resolve to live a year off the food grid is really food for thought. Obviously it's not a feasible goal for suburban folks to grow all of their own veggies and slaughter their own grass-fed turkeys, but she gives us some good ideas about being kinder to the planet by "eating locally", choosing food and products created as near to your own zip code as possible. It made me aware of how food choices I make impact a growing circle of people and the environment. Using her instructions I even tried making my own cheese from local milk, and it was delicious! It's a conscious-raising read. I liked it.
reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 53 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 13
What a wonderful book...and written with such humor, as well as the facts or stats to back up what she is saying. This terrific story of an ordinary American family taking a year to eat consciously...buying food locally or growing their own...is a timely reminder to us that we need to be more aware of food--where it comes from, what industrial farms are doing to it and why we need to support local farming. This book really helped me connect the hunger problems around the world with my choices in buying food. I didn't expect to enjoy this book so much--such fun! Barbara Kingsolver helped me to "know" all the people of whom she spoke and took me personally into their lives and that of her husband and two daughters. Simply a wonderful book! One I definitely want for my own library as well as to share!
reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 16 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
Such an interesting book-- the authors are definitely people who have thought a lot about their food choices and what these choices mean for themselves, other living beings and the planet. A good reminder that we support our values with every action and every action counts toward making the world what you want it to be.
I don't think I could do what they did (eating practically all local foods for a year), but I will be more thoughtful about what I select to feed myself and my family.
tigrrrl avatar reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
Barbara Kingsolver does an amazing job portraying what life would be like if all of our sustenance came from less than a 120 mile radius. With a lot of planning and farmland she and her family were able to make it through one entire year of "local" eating. Her 3500 sq ft garden and orchard definitely puts my backyard garden to shame, but is inspirational to say the least. I thoroughly enjoyed the articles and essays contributed by her husband Steven L. Hopp throughout the chapters and the seasonal recipes by her daughter are great too.

While growing one's own food and slaughtering poultry at home may not be feasible to all of us urban residents, the premise of this book can still be incorporated into our own daily lives. Living in Southern California I have to wonder why am I buying Florida oranges at Vons when there are plenty more selections that are grown locally. Making conscious decisions about our food and getting to know the local farmer's markets can make a huge impact not only to our environment, but for our local economy as well.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a great resource for those who are just learning about the Slow Food movement without being too heavy on information. I am looking forward to reading the books that Kingsolver recommends in the index as well as boosting my vegetable garden's output this spring!
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Tamawi avatar reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on
Loved it so much I bought a permanent copy to keep.
mssheenaann avatar reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 107 more book reviews
This book is very interesting. I learned so much about food, how to raise it and living a mostly self sustaining lifestyle. This is a great life that alot of us would love to live, and it's cool to read the process written out in great detail. I could just taste and smell the wonderful, fresh food as I was reading about it. I am a sucker for any fruits or veggies especially if they are garden fresh or canned homemade. Kingsolver writes in detail that makes you feel as if you were there right along side of her wishing you had access to these awesome foods. I will be keeping this book because there are some great recipes in it that I can't wait to try this summer!!

I rated this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. The reason it didn't get a full 5 stars? Some chapters had entirely too much rambling info. I did skim over quite a few parts here and there just to get back to the story. This book also took me 3 weeks to read, which means, it didn't hold my attention quite enough to want to finish fast. It was overall a great read though and packed full of lots of great info!

http://www.hoteatsandcoolreads.com/2012/03/book-review-animal-vegetable-miracle.html
Honeygirl62 avatar reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 165 more book reviews
I haven't thought this much about the source of my food since I read Farm Sanctuary three years ago. I learned so much about when vegetables are in season and at the peak of their flavor. You actually feel like you can do something about it by buying locally...you don't have to have your own farm or garden. You don't even have to can or freeze, although you should if you want to enjoy those local in season fruits and vegetables in the winter when nothing local is in season. The author interspersed all this information with humor and stories of her own family and friends in her year long experiment with eating locally. I highly recommend this book.
reviewed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life on + 31 more book reviews
Great book.


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