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Of Faith and, Well, Food
by 
While it's no surprise that food is present in the rituals and festivities of many (all?) of the world's religions, when Speaking of Faith's Krista Tippett interviewed author Barbara Kingsolver about her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I found it a fascinating hour and listened raptly as I fluffed flo
ur and grated zucchini for muffins. (The entire program, plus an unedited version of the interview, is available for download via podcast.)
But I couldn't help but think, Is a venture like Kingsolver and her family's - who left their home in Arizona to live on a farm in southwestern Virginia where they raise free-range chickens, turkeys, Icelandic sheep, and an enormous vegetable garden and for an entire year, the food on their table was home-grown or sourced locally - a matter of faith? a subject of faith? a question answered by faith? It was interesting, sure, but how does it belong, how does it fit, a discussion of living a faithful life?
No pithy answers here, but it's got me nibbling on the idea. That and a really good muffin.
Blogher food editor Alanna Kellogg sticks to recipes, mostly, when she writes the food column Kitchen Parade and the food blog A Veggie Venture.
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Sitting on my shelf
This one is sitting on my shelf staring at me. I think it's a fascinating idea, as is Plenty in which the authors eat locally for a whole year (need to pick up that book at some point). What I personally choose to take from these types of books is to put down that frozen pizza and cook some real food from fresh ingredients. Not only do I eat better for me and tastier food this way, I find I eat way more vegetables. It may not be totally local, and living in a city without a balcony it's hard to grow things (well...that and I tend to kill plants, including cacti) but I buy from farmer's markets when I can and well, it's a step in a good direction right?
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
TW read it last week
I'm so behind on my reading list that I'm going to take it back to the library unread, sigh. I will have to check it out again though because TW talked about it constantly while she was reading it.
I do, however, wish Kingsolver would go back to writing fiction. I'm getting a little tired of her non-fiction work.
~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings
True Enough
Sassy ~ After reading the book, Krista Tippett (whom I ADORE) has started a vegetable garden. That said, she admitted that Kingsolver's endeavor was so ambitious as to be overwhelming for someone. Good for you, not feeling 'outdone' but doing what you can in your own way.
Denise ~ And ditto re fiction. I go way back with her books, even to Turtle. And my book club has done both Poisonwood and Prodigal Summer.
This was a GREAT interview
I caught this on my local NPR station - it was completely engaging. And while what she's doing may be out of scope for many, as long as she's an inspiration for small steps...
Or,what Sassy said.
Nerd's Eye View
I heard about it on NPR as well.
I thought that the idea was really novel. But, I was also struck at how difficult it was for them.
Strollerderby had a blurb about this as well:
http://babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2007/07/25/author-barba...
and the author of the post suggested a moderated version of Kingslover's idea;10% instead of 100% to begin with.
I wonder if this might not be a bit more attainable than 100% local.
www.TasteLikeCrazy.com
Question of Faith - In oneself maybe
Maybe the faith part is having faith in yourself to take the small steps toward supporting locally grown food. And having faith that it'll help in some way. I believe it can and was inspired by Kingsolver to sign up with a local dairy for milk delivery and to drive to a nearby farm for produce.
Denise - see if the book is available on CD from the library. That's how I managed to find time to get through it. I played it in the car while we ran errands, etc. My husband found it fascinating. Your kids will like the part about turkey sex, too.
Doh!
I meant Kingsolver. Oops.
www.TasteLikeCrazy.com
my thought on local
Having read both this and plenty (and I still have a saved entry to post about this) I've been trying to eat more local food. Especially since we're in Ohio. Generally my philosophy is if I can get it local, I try to because usually it just tastes better. The problem we've been having though is our farmer's market prices are the same or more expensive than the grocery, which seems to be unusual. But somethings, which i'm not willing to give up (avocados, limes, oranges) we're just never going to be able to get local. But the more the better.
Healthy Manifest