Today the gang at NaMloPoMo asked:
Have you ever wished you could enter a book?
Without hesitation, Animal Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver came to mind. Kingsolver is a well known novelist, known for books such as The Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer. this was her first non fiction book. Ever since 2007, when I first read her 12 month adventure with eating food grown at home, I’ve been fantasizing about finding a way to do it with my family.
I’ve been a student of the local food movement well before it was ever trendy. In October of 2001, I took a class with Joan Dye Gussow, a Columbia University nutrition professor who had written her PhD thesis on how many calories of energy it took to bring a tomato from California to NY. As a result, she dug up her back yard, started growing food and has been doing it ever since.
Sure enough, Barbara and Joan are long time friends. No doubt it was Joan that inspired Barbara to grow all of her food for a year and write about it.
Now, in 2011, the price of a barrel of oil is over $100. Climate change has been wrecking havoc on food crops around the world. While the local food movement is a growing trend for “foodies” across the country, it is time for ALL of us to get to work in some form to grow at least some of our food.
I’ve been working on building my food growing skills for more than 5 years now. Unfortunately, my home has both shade and deer so all I can grow there is herbs and some garlic! the last two years, I grew food at Camp Ballibay. This year, I’ve got two spots in a local community garden.
Growing your own food eliminates many of the problems of the Standard American Diet. Junk simply doesn’t grow in gardens.
Some day, I hope I can follow in Mrs. Kingsolver’s footsteps and grow most of my food myself.
