Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

So, one of the very first things I did when I started to get interested in local or organic foods was read.  If you know me in real life, then you know how I came out of the womb reading a book.  My top favorite book that I've read is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  It follows the year in which Barbara and her family attempt to grow their own food or buy local.  The book is sequenced in a year format starting with asparagus season in March. 

This book excels in showing how food grows seasonally, which is something I feel that the general population has lost touch with.  In the general population's defense, it's very easy to forget especially when you walk into a grocery store and it's always lettuce and tomato season.  Barbara also did a great job of putting in recipes and sample meal plans at the end of each chapter.  All throughout the book, she also has small articles going more into depth about certain topics, such as CAFOs, canning and sustainable farming. 

My favorite chapter is the one about turkey mating.  Trust me...it's great!  It's very eye opening to realize that we have bred the mothering instincts about poultry.  Certain breeds of chicken and turkey literally can not reproduce without human intervention.  That's messed up. 

Bourbon Red Turkeys ( I really want some of these this year)
From: Mother Earth News

So, if you haven't read this book, I would highly recommend it!

On a side note, anyone hear of Kill it, Cook it, Eat it?  It's a BBC program on that we caught on Current TV.  Just a warning, it's pretty graphic!  It literally shows the sequence killing a meat animal, cooking it and then eating it.  Very eye opening if you have the stomach for it!