I had read some of Barbara Kingsolver’s works of fiction, but a friend told me about this book, and I knew I just had to read it. Kingsolver and her family embark on a one-year experiment to try to eat only local food, and to raise as much of it as they can themselves on their farm in Tennessee. Anyone who has been to a farmer’s market in a cold climate in February knows this can be a challenging undertaking. Say goodbye to tomatoes, bananas, pineapple, avocados…all sorts of delicious treats that we may take for granted in our global economy. Kingsolver makes a few concessions herself…coffee is one of the non-local items they decide they cannot live without…but they do make sure the coffee they get is fair trade.
It’s a fascinating book and a good read for anyone who is interested in the locavore movement.
