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Loading... Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locallyby Alisa Smith
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Did you read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? Have you thought about becoming a "locavore"? These folks in Vancouver did it first! ( )You know, I was ready to really like this book. I was receptive to the idea of eating local foods, and wanted to see how a couple on the other side of the continent could make it happen. Turns out, they do make it happen, and they are skilled writers, but I couldn't help feeling that their issue was a first world issue. That, as young, single people with flexible schedules, they were free to indulge their new hobby of eating food only produced within one hundred miles of their home. They spent a good bit of money (at first) on the project, but even more time was spent procuring their sources for food. I cannot imagine being able to do this as a working mom - it just seemed to take far too much effort. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic to their cause, because I am not, however, I will look elsewhere for ideas for working families to incorporate this kind of lifestyle into their own. The authors also point out several times that for all of human history communities and civilizations have prized exotic foods from strange locales over their own locally grown foods - from the extravagant meals from far flung locations in ancient Rome, to the trading ships of the 19th century bringing tea from China and spices from India. So, even though we have refrigerated trucks and a national highway system, our lives are not too different from people of earlier times. I think we should be eating less processed foods and more REAL foods, the more local, the better - that is the issue! km I was intrigued by the title and the idea of eating locally for an entire year, and the book did bring home the principle that today food travels thousands of miles before reaching our plates and mouths. For one year the authors, a couple, ate food grown within 100 miles of their Vancouver, B.C. apartment. The authors alternated writing chapters and alternated between blending personal thoughts and experiences with eating locally and the politics of food. I most enjoyed the personal experiences and when they wrote about their food experiments such as learning how to can food for the winter, making cheese, and other food firsts for them. Another good book along this local food genre is Animal Vegetable Miracle. The idea was great and I think Alisa and James did a good job explaining and carrying out their experiment. It was well written and interesting, but the book was peppered with snide relationship comments that I could have done without. Regardless, I'm convinced that local eating is the way to go! I read The 100-Mile Diet about a month ago when I went to my friends cottage. I picked it up on a whim. I had been hearing about it for ages, as has everyone else. Especially if you are the type to lurk on food blogs (I’m a good lurker) or are Canadian and read any Canadian media (especially arts media). In in a fit of what can only be called insanity, Alisa Smith and Jame MacKinnon decided that for a whole YEAR they would eat only local produce. Local being food whose source is within a 100-mile radius of their apartment. Gutsy. Interesting. But quite potentially insane. Read the rest here . no reviews | add a review
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400)
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