Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle drew me in from the first page. Having enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's novels (most recently, Prodigal Summer), I expected her 'year of food life' to contain some good stories. What I did not expect was the seamless weaving of education and entertainment, or to feel compelled to own a copy (rare for me).

The year's narrative begins as the Hoppsolver family (Barbara K, her husband Steven L. Hopp, daughters Camille K and Lily H) moves from arid Tucson to verdant Virginia. Planting, weeding, harvesting and canning follow, along with raising chickens and heritage turkeys, making cheese, baking bread, and getting to know the neighbors who make their living from farming. Neither a Martha Stewart magazine spread nor an agrarian fairy-tale, the memoir illustrates both the hard, continual labor involved in hand-crafting one's food life and the many rewards from making that commitment.

A road trip from Virginia to Montreal, and a vacation in Italy, provide a change of scene, along with cultural lessons. Variety in tone and perspective come from sidebars written by Camille and Steven, focusing respectively on the pleasures of seasonal eating and the socio-political and ecological aspects of our food system.

More than any other work on local food, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle gives me hope and inspiration, a picture of what is possible and a personal understanding of why it matters.

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