Animal Vegetable Miracle - Final Week

There are more than five chapters left in the book, but a measly two chapters for another week of discussion, especially when the new month is upon us, just doesn't seem right. I'll be summing up the remainder of the book this week, so we can begin our new read for the month of May. Per the request of Green Dream Bean's Bookworm Challenge, next month's book will continue in the "green" vein of things and will be Farewell, My Subaru by Doug Fine. I hope this is agreeable to everyone (Christine?) as I have my copy on reserve at the JP library. Oh, shoot, I won't get mine until May 15th though...this may foul things up a bit with the alleged May 7th start, but I'll work something out.

Chapter 14 - "When you kill a beast, say to him in your heart, By the same power that slays you, I too am slain, and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivers you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand. Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven."

The family's chickens and turkeys are 'harvested,' as Kingsolver calls it, in this chapter. She discusses the dichotomy most people have between feeling nothing about buying the food they get in a plastic wrapped package from the store and the fierce anger some might feel at the killing of those feathery, harmless fowl one sees in a farm yard. The title is aptly named "You Can't Run Away at Harvest Time" and the killing of the farm raised, grass fed, free range animals on a farm just might be the testament of all farmers to see if they really can follow through. For a long time now I have felt if I eat meat, I should be able to kill meat. This Fall I will get my first opportunity if and when Jason's friends in Western MA kill their chickens. We'll see if I can come through and really put my actions where my thoughts and heart want to be.

How do you feel buying and preparing meat from the store? How real and clear is the connection between the animal that meat once was and the slice you hold in your hand? How cognizant are you of where your meat comes from and what it once was?

In Chapter 15 the Kingsolver adults are on their second honeymoon in Italy, away from the farm, away from eating local, and away from anything out of their ordinary routines. This does not stop them from seeing and viewing Italy and its culture for all its support, celebration and wonderful praise of the local. Here, the couple does not have to wonder what food is local - local, in season food is automatically what is served in whatever region they happen to be in. So instead they celebrate slow eating, and the luxury and beauty of a slow meal, another really important aspect of appreciating and enjoying food.

How hard is it for you to stick with your views on food when eating or discussing them with people from other cultures or countries or differing views? have you noticed your education on eating local, organic food influencing your eating habits in restaurants? with friends? Where else and or how?

Chapter 16 is when Kingsolver can finally feel good and complete in celebrating one American food tradition that is local and seasonal - Thanksgiving. This is the one time when people are united in eating seasonal foods right when they should - pumpkins, cranberry sauce, turkeys, and potatoes which would all be harvested in the fall. It may just be routine at this point for most Americans, that and a vague reminder of some connection between the pilgrims and the native americans. Regardless, Kingsolver takes extreme joy in the fact that most of their family's Thanksgiving meal comes from their own hands and land.

Do you have any of your own food traditions you have started? Even something weekly could count. Do you think there are any other American holidays that Kingsolver missed that celebrate local and seasonal foods?

Chapter 17 is almost the dead of winter for the Kingsolvers and their locavore eating journey. Speaking of the dead, the family adopted the Mexican tradition of celebrating Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This is another holiday centered around food, sharing, and family, but more about...dead family. At this point, the youngest daughter's entrepreneurial spirit in raising her hens finally pays off. Her hens start laying and she starts selling - especially to her mother who needs a lot of eggs to prepare a special Dia de los Muertos dish called - Pan de Muerto, a Frida Kahlo special.

Does your family have any of its own integrated cultural celebrations? If not out and out holidays, what foods and or dishes were celebrated in your family? Were there obvious winter dishes and summer dishes?

In Chapter 18 all the hard work of the summer finally pays off. The block print picture for the chapter opening sums it up perfectly with shelved full of canned, jarred goods, waiting to be eaten. Where as most people's stereotypes would put farmers and locavores in a desperate situation come January, the reality is quite different. From all the canning, drying, and preserving, the Kingsolver's eat a bounty of local produce that others would long for.

Even if you do not have a garden of your own, how do you get ready for the winter months? Do you tend to eat more of something in the Winter than in Summer? How do your eating and activity patterns change?

Chapter 19 Hungry Month, Kingsolver is put to the test in letting nature take its course when it comes to her turkeys and...intercourse. She has raised them from chicks for this one purpose - to procreate on their own and raise their own young. However, her turkeys have another idea and do not take to motherhood easily.

Were you surprised at finding out how turkeys really have intercourse and procreate? What did you think was going to happen for Kingsolver and her turkeys? What would you have done in her place? How long would you have waited?

Chapter 20 The final chapter wraps up their year of changes, between growing their own food and making everything from scratch. Per the American goal of get more for your money, Kingsolver feels compelled to show the family's food journey financially. Turns out their extravagant, local, organic meals only cost $.50 per person! Think of all the fast food solutions and quick meals to save time and money that could have been substituted with a home grown meal. How feasible do you think this is for the average to below average American consumer? How could people realize this savings and value over the long term versus the short term easy fast solutions of quick, unhealthy foods?

Kingsolver ends with a very empowering trumpet call when she says that "small, stepwise changes in personal habits aren't trivial. Ultimately they will, or won't add up to having been the thing that mattered." What have you done in the last year to change your personal habits, that when they add up really make a difference to you?