I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, or should I say, I'm STILL reading it. It's taking me so long because I'm barely getting in a chapter every few days, in between Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. But it's wonderful!
If you haven't heard of this book, here's a very brief summary: The author and her family move to an old farmstead in Appalachia and vow to eat only what they can produce themselves for a year. It's non-fiction in case you were wondering. And it's really got me thinking...
My family lives in "Unincorporated Miami-Dade County" in a semi-rural agricultural area Southwest of Miami, Florida, between Biscayne and Everglades National Parks. There is a lot of agriculture here, but most of it is not only conventionally grown (read: guys in haz-mat suits on tractors with sprayer attachments) but much of it is ornamental
and landscape plants. We have participated in a local CSA (community supported agriculture) program and do know some of the organic farmers, but I have been wondering what the hell I would be serving if I tried to get ALL my food from within 25 miles or so. Draceana? Impatiens?
Even still, more and more farmers are selling their land to developers. One of the fastest growing "crops" in the area now seem to be yellow houses with clay tile roofs! Not very much taste at all, in my humble opinion!
Yesterday we spent the day at my mother in law's, about an hour or so North of our house. Most visits, she makes a pineapple upside down cake, special for me since she knows how I like it. It is good, too! Moist, super sweet with a layer of crunchy caramelized brown sugar on top (used to be bottom) of the pineapples. This is a classic space-age house wife recipe: a box of this, a can of that, set the timer and VOILA! I often say that if Duncan Heinz and Betty Crocker had a baby, that baby would grow up to be would be my mother in law!
As I was gobbling up my second piece, I was wondering where it all came from. The canned pineapples were probably last year's crop from Costa Rica. The sugar was probably from Malawi or Honduras. The eggs were likely from an artificially lit factory in the midwest. And who knows what's actually even in the cake mix to begin with!?
My mother in law was born in 1930. When she was growing up, learning to cook, becoming a mama, the majority of her food probably did come from within the county in which she lived. Only rare and exotic delicacies and foods that kept well without much refrigeration would have come from far off lands. And there I was sitting in her dining room, sucking it all down, sneaking extra pieces of crumbly sugar bits off the rest of the cake that had been flown, shipped and trucked from all corners of the globe.
It was truly a surreal moment. Where do you think our food will come from in 2030? I've always admired Saturn...
::kristin::
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I'm reading this book right now, too--well, listening to it on audio. I have to say, it's even better on CD, as you get all their voices. It's very soothing. Wonderful book. I'm green with envy at all the resources BK has to make that year happen... but it is inspiring nonetheless, if we can just make little changes here and there to do what is better for our families, local farms, and the earth.
ReplyDeleteRight on, Penelope! I think I might follow in your footsteps and listen to the rest. I love it so much but its so hard to sit still! How in the world did she have time to write it when I can barely manage to read it?
ReplyDeleteI have started negotiating with my neighbors about doing a pumpkin patch in their empty lot across the street. I think I might have overwhelmed them with enthusiasm and scared them away, actually! But watch for future posts about the pumpkin patch project progress! Whoa, that's a lotta peas! Hey, maybe we'll grow them too!