Last summer I read Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver…and LOVED it. It's all about a woman who purposes to live off her family's land for a year, eating only what she could grow, raise, or buy from a local friend. I absolutely LOVED the counter-cultural nature of their experiment. I LOVED how she involved her whole family, inviting them along on the adventure. I LOVED the story (not only the book!) that she was writing into the lives of her family. You can browse inside the book and see if you'd like it by clicking here.
I loved her idea of eating in-season and local food–that it is healthier for us and for the system of food in America. I also loved her insight into the food business as a whole. It was fascinating to me, and something I had put little thought to previously. Since then, I have gone in spurts of making healthier choices for our family, but the almighty dollar has always prevailed. I hate that, and I feel like I need one final kick in the butt to make the lifestyle change.
We've also started the seeds for our own little garden this spring. My goal is to grow enough tomatoes to make pizza sauce for the whole year. We eat a lot of homemade pizza. :)
Husband is building us raised beds for the backyard, and we're going to have our own little garden of herbs, tomatoes, and hopefully some other fun experiments. I hope that in the coming few years we will get good at growing a lot of our own produce. I am particularly interested at growing adept (no pun intended) at lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, herbs, and possibly onions. Those are the main veggies we spend a lot of money on at the grocery.
Also, our friend is becoming a mini chicken farmer…mini as in she has 6 hens not miniature chickens (although, think of how cute that would be!). So, I'll be able to get eggs from her very soon! Yay!
These are just some of the steps we're pursuing to make our eating life a little better. I can't wait to see what the movie prompts us to think. It should be interesting.
Stay tuned for a great post later today from/about GUSSY!