"Take a minute to study this creation – an imaginary plant that bears over the course of one growing season a cornucopia of all the different vegetable products we can harvest. We’ll call it a vegetannual ..."As Barbara Kingsolver and her family embark on a year of living off the land, they realize that they will be eating whatever the land is offering at that particular time of year. If the asparagus are in season, you eat a lot of asparagus. And for the times of year when the land isn't offering up much food, you prepare ahead by freezing, drying, and canning the harvest grown for just that reason. In December one didn't go to the grocery story and buy a tomato that was picked unripe in South America, shipped thousands of miles in refrigerated storage, and made to look red with ethylene gas that doesn't taste like much of anything. No they ate the fruits of their own garden that had ripened naturally and they had taken the time to preserve for the winter. They ate a much better tasting tomato and didn't waste the transportation gas and refrigeration energy to get it either.
But eating food in season from local sources is not the norm for most Americans. Kingsolver writes, "It had felt arbitrary when we sat around the table with our shopping list, making our rules. It felt almost silly to us in fact, as it may now seem to you. Why impose restrictions on ourselves? Who cares?" Kingsolver advocates the pleasures and ethics of seasonal eating, but she acknowledges that many people would view this as deprivation "because we've grown accustomed to the botanically outrageous condition of having everything always."
Do you believe that American society can—or will— overcome the need for instant gratification in order to be able to eat seasonally? How does Kingsolver present this aspect in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? Did you get the sense that she and her family ever felt deprived in their eating options? How can eating seasonally be seen as a spiritual discipline?
Labels: Animal Vegetable Miracle, Book Discussions
i'm new to the "emerging women" blog; a friend pointed me here recently. wow! so exciting to know you all are here. my husband has gone to lots of gatherings but i have never had the chance to go and connect with any of you before.
anyway, i didn't know about this kingsolver book but loved poisonwood bible. i haven't read this yet, but the discussion going on makes me want to.
i can say that i definitely think for me eating locally and organically feels more and more like a spiritual act. thinking of eating what comes from my own backyard so to speak, and helping out and giving back to the community in that way, and also thinking that it might help sustain our planet (or at least not contribute to its demise) feels like worship.
and we are trying our hand at a very small garden also this year. i can't get enough of going out there and just standing among the plants and waiting for everything to be ready to eat. honestly this feels the most spiritual of all (for obvious reasons)!
thanks again for being here. looking forward to reading more of what everyone has to say.