Book a Month Challenge: April

April's theme was "Beauty." I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kinsolver. Yes, I am keeping with my historical practice of make-the-book-fit-the-theme. Whatever. Growing your own vegetables is a spiritual quest of the most noble but down to earth kind and there is nothing so beautiful as the first little shoot poking it's tentative head out of the ground you planted it in. The book basically tells the story of Kingsolver and her family who decided to eat local and grow as much of their own food as possible for a year. When I orginially heard of this book, I was thrilled because I knew that Kingsolver was Tucson author and thought the book would be full of useful information about growing food in Tucson. Turns out, not so much. Before beginning their quest, Kingsolver and her family moved to a farm that they owned in West Virginia, where it rains. So, so much for sustainable gardening in Tucson. In the beginning of the book, Kingsolver sort of pans Tucson and any attempts at growing your own food there. This put me off a bit, but I quickly forgave her when she clued me in to the wonder of wild aspargus. I had no idea there was such a thing. I also find her to be somewhat of a strident omnivore, arguing that it is not possible to eat only plants without consuming animals (i.e., even in organic farms worms and bugs get cut up and plowed under). I don't know if this the point of vegetarianism for lot of people, but I appreciated her correlating argument that if you're going to eat meat, you should now where it comes from. She devotes an entire chapter to chicken slaughter which was both fascinating and disgusting. I was completely inspired by this book and I'd love give this kind of thing a shot myself someday (minus chicken slaughter and obviously not on the itty-bitty plot of snow covered land that I live on now). I particularly enjoyed her descriptions of tomato season and she nearly convinced that I can make my own cheese. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm still tempted.