Sometimes, a book
is so perfect it defies definition.
I was given this
book as a birthday gift. Actually it was a sort of a re-gifting,
as the friend who gave it to me admitted she’d received it from
someone else and "just couldn’t get into it." She was gracious (?)
enough to relay though, that she thought it was EXACTLY the sort of
thing that I WOULD "get into", the implication being, of course, that
her version of fascinating and mine are miles apart. And even
though that’s true, I’d never be ungracious enough to publicly "out"
her poor taste in books.
So, thanks for
the book, Gayle.
Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle is a year-long journal that takes us through one
growing season - one season of a family that makes a promise to
themselves to eat as locally as possible for one year - the ideal
being to feed themselves from their own yard.
Eating fresh in
season, or preserving for later, means giving up the ease of
supermarket bananas - they don’t grow in their neck of the woods.
Simultaneously, it means glutting without guilt precious tidbits like
strawberries and wild mushrooms, eaten with carefree abandon when
they’re literally Free for the Picking, as well as postponing a trip
because the cherries came ripe before anticipated.
Animal husbandry
in the form of poultry is covered well and honestly, and proving that
Chicken Herding is something that a child can not only be trusted to
help with, but given into the lap of the right young entrepreneur, can
be a thriving lesson in economics and small business administration.
The solemn
passage from "something with feathers that’s alive" to "something on
our dinner plate and is…not" is also addressed respectfully.
If a journal of
this type were all that were in the book, it would be well worth the
reading.
But wait...
There’s more! (and your Ginsu knives will come in handy for this
part)
Using only things
that are in season can be a challenge not only to grow and shop for,
but in cooking as well. Most recipes call for ingredients that
are wildly disparate and that would never ever live as seasonal or
geographical neighbors in the natural world. Therefore, there
are recipes at the end of every section for the wonderful dishes that
are described in the text - compiled, explained and brought about by
Barbara’s daughter Camille.
Her husband,
Steven, supplies the book with handy and technical "asides" throughout
as well, making this book a Family Affair, along with the story it
contains.
And as if this
all isn’t enough, the recipes can be downloaded in actual cookbook
form by visiting
www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com.
This is much more
than a how-to-garden book or a how-to-can book, or a cookbook, or even
merely a journal of the growing season. Given Ms. Kingsolver’s
gift of storytelling, this is the antithesis of Seinfeld,
which was, proudly, a "show about nothing."
Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle is a book about everything, from the tiniest garden
miracles to the most Earth-shattering difficulties we currently face.
And it’s all wrapped up in a lovely package for those of us who “still
have some element of farm nostalgia in our family past, real or
imagined: a secret longing for some connection to a life where a
rooster crows in the yard”.
