Joining the "Food Cult"

Disclaimer: It's not really a cult. That's a made-up name Rob gave this book I just read because as he said, "it's funny to see you get so into something like this book." Apparently that energy translates "food cult." 

Let me explain. Back in the 7th grade or so I read a novel, The Bean Trees, the first novel of author Barbara Kingsolver. Since then I've read most of her other novels and have followed her book releases sporadically. So when I saw she had a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about her family's decision to eat their own, local food for one year, I asked and received it for Christmas. 

Basically this book makes you want to go out and plow your own field, grow your own tomatoes (and lots of other stuff), make you own food from scratch, raise your own chickens, go to Italy, and SO much more. It's the stuff of romance I'm sure -- nights out under the stars, dates to the farmer's market, lots of cooking and canning over hot summer stoves, even pulling weeds seems romantic in this book. 

As my father would call it, it's one of those "back to nature" books. And frankly it is. I don't think Kingsolver is a believer so I would definitely take issue with some of her discussions of where plants came from in the first place, but otherwise what she talks about makes so much sense. Soapbox alert: we are killing ourselves and future generations with the food we eat if it's highly processed (don't even get me started on high fructose corn syrup) and genetically engineered and full of chemicals put there by huge companies out to make a buck off farmers. Also, have you thought recently about where your food comes from? Do citrus fruits grow naturally in January where you live? If not, think about how much it took to get them to your grocery store. (I write this while having clementines from Spain in my fridge so I'm just as guilty as the next person, but I'm thinking of all this as a gradual process of changing my mindset about food, so we'll take it slow here.) 

This book is chock full of reasons supporting diversity of crops, good stewardship of the land, non-use of pesticides, etc., etc. Like I said, the evidence she gives will seriously make you want to go out and plant your own food and make it into some of the delicious dinners she describes in her book. 

Reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle made me want to live more simply and enjoy what is at my disposal, in season around me. It made me want to use my body to cultivate a piece of land and celebrate something blooming and growing on it. It made me want to work harder and spend a little more to support local farmers around me (hello, I live in Indiana afterall), and finally it made me want to have a really big freezer so I could "put up" lots of food like the Kingsolver family does. 

Obviously at this stage of life Rob and I can't do that. Kingsolver even admitted to her own "just working professional life of eating rice and beans." Amen and that sounds familiar. But I think this book has started planting seeds (ha, pun intended there!) of a different kind of life that perhaps our culture and the big food giants push at us. It means to me being involved in farms like Victory Acres and making smart choices about the food we buy. I understand of course this isn't the life for everyone and it takes a lot of work to make meals from "whole" foods. However, if we really do our homework and realize that by buying whole ingredients instead of processed foods we actually save money, well, sign me up. 

There's a lot more I could say about this book, but I'll stop here. I don't want to be accused of joining up with some crazy "food cult." Or maybe I do? Maybe I like the sound of that. :) 

For more, check out www.animalvegetablemiracle.com or you're welcome to borrow my copy of the book and read it yourself.