Local Food

So I've joined MaryJane's Farmgirls and I'm working on earning merit badges. One of them requires me to read the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. To my surprise, I'm enjoying it immensely! The quality of her writing is not what surprises me. Rather, we have such differences of opinion that I thought it would be hard to get through. She's not a Christian, believes in evolution, that sort of thing. But actually, our beliefs run parallel in lots of ways. So I've been devouring her book (pun intended).

This excerpt probably sums it all up: "The psychic divide between rural and urban people is surely a part of the problem. 'Eaters must understand,' Wendell Berry writes, 'that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.' Eaters must, he claims, but it sure looks like most eaters don't."

This book is not a just a treatise on the importance of eating locally grown, seasonal, organic food. It's the story of her family's attempt to eat in that way exclusively for one whole year. And what a ride it was!

So what does this have to do with us? Well, I'm not just earning a badge here. Rowdy and I are planning a large garden this year. We plan to sell locally to various farmers markets and maybe have a roadside stand. This will dovetail into our organic fertilizer business and other things we have planned (like the sawmill) in order for us to make enough money that Rowdy can quit working for a giant corporation. So books like this one by Barbara Kingsolver are helping me learn more about our new enterprise!