Food, Reading, Garden

As I mentioned a few days ago, I recently read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which is about a family's experience of growing most of their own food--and buying the rest only from local farms. (With exceptions for some must-have items like coffee and olive oil) Taken just as a narrative, it's fun, full of details about things like harvesting garlic and breeding turkeys. Kingsolver's husband and daughter contribute bits; there are recipes and even menus. The level of self-sufficiency is very impressive when you remember that the adults were both busy earning their livings various ways outside the farm. It's a surprisingly disaster-free year for such a story--no drought, no plagues, but overall it makes a good read.

I am less enthusiastic about the book's desire to convert me to "buying local", particularly since I already do a lot of that and don't need a lecture. She gives three reasons: (1) it tastes better (2) you will be supporting farms that are good for the land and environment and (3) this reduces your carbon footprint. The problem, once you start applying this to shopping, is that those three often conflict with one another. Just to begin with, the French still make better cheese than Connecticut farmers do--but buying French cheese implies a lot of shipping. I tried shopping with a focus on farms that take good care of their land and found that the most prominent "organic" brand in my supermarket comes from a farm cooperative in Wisconsin--which also means a lot of shipping. To make matters even more confusing, I went to the web site that Kingsolver recommends, Local Harvest, to learn about local sources and found myself faced with lots of offers to ship me frozen "heritage" turkeys from all around the country. (There are Connecticut sources as well)

Somewhat to my surprise, the Wisconsin organic cottage cheese I bought during my pro-farm shopping expedition really does taste better that the supermarket brand--it's a livelier cheese-ier taste that I remember from childhood. So that's a win and will be repeated.

In an effort to clarify what's really going on, I have started reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan which is very impressive indeed. He's a first rate journalist describing how our food is grown and made here in the US--first discussing conventional agribusiness, then what he calls "big organic" (that's the category for my Wisconsin friends), then organic farming by "the non barcode people" and finally a process of hunting and foraging a whole meal on his own. It's an excellent book; I recommend it highly.

The picture is of a local farm stand where I frequently shop for vegetables. Much of what they sell is their own; apples and pumpkins are the big news at the moment. I'd never thought much about it before, but they clearly also stock items grown elsewhere in Connecticut (the local term is "native") as well as some from much further away. I bought lemons today; they seem to have come from Mexico. But I couldn't live without lemons.

Odds and ends

The weather has gotten weirdly warm and wet but not soon enough for the moonvine--the big bud looked almost ready to open--but it fell off the bush instead. Too sad a picture to take and post. I don't hold out much hope for the other buds (although there are some) but will definitely try again next year.

Janet, that's wonderful that you are reading O'Brian's books. I read straight through between '93 and '97 when I was working in Washington and often taking the train back and forth. I think it may almost be time to start again. As for Monarch of the Glen, I think those early series are the best but we simply can't stop. We are now waiting for the final series, which should be available in a week or two. And Helen (I think it was Helen), I have had a surprising degree of difficulty getting Frances Partridge's Diaries--or even straightening out exactly what they were called. There is a new edition simply called "Diaries" which I may buy but at the moment I am about to start on Love in Bloomsbury.