Barbara Kingsolver uses her very readable style to encourage us all on a journey to understand the effects of the standard American diet on our own health as well as the health of the earth. This book is a fun and heart-touching read that also contains great recipes and short insightful inserts regarding the negative impacts of the US agricultural and food production system. The authors provide hope that personal choice in selecting locally grown and natural whole foods can positively impact our future. It helped me make the move to a more healthy lifestyle. This book will also make a great gift for family and friends.

As some of the reviewers write, I, too, believe that the premise of this book is a good one - eat local - however, there has to be a better way to present this book than through a preachy tone. I kept reading, but also kept putting the book down, which is unusual for me.

Our family tested our gardening skills this year and have grander plans for next year, albeit nothing like Ms. Kingsolver's foray. I kept reading this book because Ms. Kingsolver would throw in some really good information on certain topics (it would have been nice if she had created a plant chart as an appendix). The recipes were interesting to look at, but I'll probably only try one or two of them because it looks like I like a much spicier dish than Ms. Kingsolver's family (or maybe the spices were allowed because they weren't locally grown?). Apparently they are available on the book website, so you don't need to buy the book if you want to see the recipes.

Cheese-making is something I'd like to explore thanks to reading this book. I might try adding to my bread ingredients too, thanks to Ms. Kingsolver's husband.

So, all in all, I thought the book was interesting because I already was in the position to want to try some of the things that Ms. Kingsolver's family did. However, Ms. Kingsolver's presentation comes out very preachy, so those who just want to read the book for entertainment may find it too tedious.

How to rate this book was difficult as there were portions that I enjoyed. But by the time the friend came to visit from Arizona and I heard again about the waste of gas to bring food I felt I had been preached to too much. A shortened version of this book would be better.

This book is very inspiring for those who are unaware or unclear about how much buying produce from far away affects our environment, our farmers and biodiversity. I loved it, and starting following the principles - they make sense.

Barbara Kingsolver is such a fluid writer and as this book chronicles her families' year eating only locally grown foods, I was inspired to change the way I gather, prepare and consume our meals. I probably couldn't do right now what they did for a year but I am inspired and the recipes she shared were all very very good.

My students now ask me if I am on Barbara Kingsolver's payroll because I have been so moved by this book and quote it all the time. The emphasis on both personal health and the well-being of the planet is something we ALL need. Brava!! Amazing!

Barbara Kingsolver knows how to impart her knowledge with a wit and style that keeps you entertained and at the same time makes you want to change the world (or your life, at least).

I picked up this book with no history of Ms. Kingsolver as an author, simply thinking the premise behind the book, trying to purchase local foods and understanding the history of food and agriculture would prove interesting. As a typical homeowner with a small vegetable garden, I also thought it might prove to have some good tips. Sadly, any positives out of the book gets lost and weighed down by a superior and condescending writing style.

Ms. Kingsolver suffers from the same problems that afflict so many "advocate" authors, whether they be on the right,left, conservative, liberal side of a position. Instead of presenting an interesting and positive position based on a combination of facts and beliefs, she starts from the assumption that her viewpoint is simply a superior one and then continues to mock, insult, judge any other viewpoint or process.

A reader knows right away that when the first chapter extols the virtues of a European lifestyle without critically pointing out the flaws or the negative consequences of that culture and then proceeds to make silly conclusions that Europeans must be healthier because they have nude beaches, you know exactly what is coming next, a trashing of all things American. Instead of sticking to critical analysis of what is wrong with the American process of agriculture and food culture, the book is a romp in trashing any innovation, an assumption that all advances in food "technology" was part of the usual corporate conspiracy, and a self-righteous tome about how she is living her life.

The sad part is that many of her arguments are valid: There is a vast amount of energy wasted in current shipping of agricultural goods, the use of excessive pesticides and chemicals has not significantly decreased crop disease, the failure of a majority of not just Americans, but most citizens of developed nations to understand the food chain, the importance of local farmers to a society and to a community. There should have been an interesting story here without the pretentiousness, or moral/agricultural superiority. The book provides good sources for anyone interested in understanding local farming, in how and when vegetables grow and when they really should be purchased and eaten.

However, by the time I was able to even make it through the fifth chapter, as a reader I could not take any more preaching. WE GET IT, you are better then the rest of us. Even as someone sympathetic to much of what she was saying, I still could not digest anymore, nor did I care and that is the worst sin of any author; making your reader not care.

Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is just that - a miracle! Her most stunning novel to date and amazingly enough, it is NON-fiction! It changed my views totally - I am a much more intelligent shopper and cook and consumer now... and food tastes waaaay better! I am feeling better, too!

5 super stars for Barbara Kingsolver! A MUST read!!!

I have always been interested in growing things and farming because some of the earlier generations of my family were farmers. I learned much from this book about potatoes and how they grow a green leafy plant when they are ready to pull. I also learned that pineapples don't grow on trees... I didn't know this, they look like tree-fruit to me.

A lot of this book was interesting, and I had much to learn from it. Then there were times where you would get to much farming detail and it got a little boring. Lastly, there were times when they would beat you over the head with how Americans don't eat healthy. Yes ... Yes I raise my hand. I am one of those, but you don't have to keep repeating it. I also picked this book hoping it would give me that kick in the butt to eat healthier, and it didn't really because it's too late for me to start growing my own food, so I just felt bad throughout the book. I have thought about buying locally, but no I haven't don't that either. I had a hard time getting through this book mostly I think because of feeling bad about myself part and because you can only read or listen to a person talk about a certain subject for so long before you have to take a break. I needed lots of breaks.

The locovore movement - practice of eating locally produced food - is definitely picking up steam, and rightfully so, there are plenty of benefits: economic support for local producers, social and health benefits, and general appreciation for food we consume. The lack of a 'food culture', as Barbara Kingsolver points out, is leading North America down a dangerous track: health problems abound, obesity is on the rise, our dependence on imports is higher than ever.

However, as with any passionate message, there are certainly shades of extremism as well: no you don't have to wear Birkenstocks and swear off supermarket produce, nor make your own cheese. Should you try, if you so desire... of course! At the end of the day, it comes down to your appreciation and need for well tasting food - whatever that means, in your context.

If you have never lived or spent time on a farm, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is a great window into that universe. The book is well organized and easy to read, just apply sound judgment to the context and the arguments discussed by the authors.

This was great! It was written in an engaging way and had a wealth of information. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening and saving our planet.

I have to admit that I found this book a little long and repetitive but still full of good information. This book talks about how it is still possible to live off of the land. It also addresses many different things that we can do as a country to help some of the enviromental issues that we have. Most of the chapters offere some good recipies that one can use. It provides a lot of information regarding sustainable living. If you live in a city, you may find it difficult to actually practice what this book preaches. So, if that's something you're looking for, you may be disappointed. I actually come from AZ where her family moved from. It would be very difficult to live the kind of lifestyle the book talks about. With that said, I found this book to be very educational. Definately some very intersting and important points. If anything, it talks about why we should all be trying to buy food that has been grown and/or raised locally.

Wonderful book with great, easy recipes! Would recommend it to anyone out of touch with nature and has or had a farming family gene. Will be purchasing for Christmas presents!

I should have read reviews of this book before buying it. I've been a member of a local, organic, community supported farm for 2 summers BEFORE I read this book. The first couple of chapters were very hard to get through, and I kept thinking, OK she's going to get into the specifics soon... But they never came. I assumed that she'd be writing to an audience that already knew of the importance of eating locally, and was going to give good advice on how to apply it practically for a whole year. WRONG. I'm a little more than halfway through and I can't wait to be done with it. There are no details about the variety in her garden, pest control, planting times for different produce. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the fact that they didn't really only eat local food! Rice, olives, sugar, sardines! What a ripoff. The tone is preachy, she hits you over the head with themes again and again, and there are only a handful of recipes, most of which have one or more nonlocal ingredient. Just. Disappointing. And a total waste of money.

I found this story fascinating and inspiring! I originally listened to this book as a download but had to buy a hard copy to loan out because I keep recommending it. If you are interested in learning more about the local food movement, sustainable farming/gardening, seasonal eating, etc... this book is for you. I have always been a city girl but six months after I read this book I was blessed with the opportunity to move to a nearby organic family farm and I love it!
Reading this book also caused me to check out Kingsolver's novels and I have really enjoyed those as well, especially The Bean Trees.

I love the message of this book but found the stream of consciousness writing style was a bit distracting. It was hard with all the side tracks to read this for more then short sessions although I was really pulling for the turkeys at the end. Barbara was also a bit heavy handed in her promotion of her friends who so happen to be offering this book on their web sites. I would have loved to found the reference for the source of the statement that is take 1.2 acres to grow food for one person today and in the year 2050 we will only have .6. That is a startling fact that I have found nothing to back it up. Barbara is pretty good for the most part in providing back up for statements. The other major puzzle was why the heck did she not buy her husband a flour mill so they could grind their own flour. They are not that expensive and fresh ground flour is so much more nutritious. Once milled wheat starts to break down as soon as oxygen and light to the expose kernel, plus all the driving around to find flour seems to be a serous waste of time.

Barbara Kingsolver's lyric prose is so fun to read, and it's good for you too! It's heartening to see the locavore movement get such attention on a national scale. Maybe American food culture isn't doomed after all. The inserts from her family are entertaining, but sometimes awkwardly placed. I can't wait to lend this out to my friends.

I enjoyed reading this book as a story about a family and how they chose to eat for a year. It certainly inspired me to cook more often, and to head to the farmer's market up the street a little more often. The sections I didn't like were those by Kingsolver and her husband broached bigger societal issues like subsidies for big agriculture companies, problems with feed lot animals, etc. These are all very real problems, but I wish the book had given more details, some statistics, references and footnotes from where her info came from, etc. Also, as a well-informed vegetarian of 17 years, I found the section about how vegetarians are all delusional to be very demeaning and her arguments weak.

Anyhow, read it for the family and farming story. But also pick up "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan for a much better explanation of the bigger issues.

I avoided reading this book for a while, because I had the feeling that I wasn't going to like it. And then a friend brought it to my house. Well, I was right. Two stars for some (but not many) good anecdotes. A bad review for a humorless, avuncular tone. We, consumers, are getting clobbered over the head from every direction with the "locavore" message anyway. Although I am in agreement with the idea that it is important to support our local farmers, it really is a conceit to think that this food is accessible to everyone. Also, I'd like to know more about the economics involved. Is it really more fuel-efficient to have dozens of farmers drive to the farmers market and hundreds of people make a special trip, compared to the economies of scale present in our big grocery store system? Just wondering. . .

You won't find answers to any difficult questions in this book. Instead, Ms. Kingsolver uses the money that she's made from her loyal fan base to look down her nose at us and write a santimonius, preachy book about how we all should be eating. I fail to see how her year of intensive gardening on her large farm in Appalachia has any bearing on the problem of how we average folks can actually best spend limited food dollars. It seems to me, that if she really wanted to make a difference, she would have spent the year dipping into her sizable bank account to buy local farm products from people who truly are trying to make a living that way rather than just ramping up her gardening efforts. Don't buy this book unless you love being condescended to.

I love anything by Barbara Kingsolver and this book was no exception. She made a believer out of me and many of our bookclub members. Even though many of us do not have gardens (this year anyway), we're all haunting the farmers' markets in town and stocking up on organic, locally grown produce, meats, eggs and dairy. The writing was just as mesmerizing as any of her fiction -- one of those books that you just don't want to finish because you don't want to not be reading it.

I don't even remember how i came across this book, but it was definitely a good read. Not 5 stars as the book was a little repetitive and slow at times, but definitely 4 stars. The book is another of the typical "i'm going to change my life and write about it plus add in statistics and side stories and such". Which is fine because i like books like this. I felt that one of the strongest points of this book were the short essay's and recipes from the authors husband and daughter. These helped the book move along and provided a break from all the local food statistics and preaching. I'm your interested in reading about local food, gardening, and rural east coast life this book would be for you.

Do you know what a CAFO is? I confess that I did. I learned it from reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan but I did not know what a locavore was or that it was chosen as 2007's word of the year by The New Oxford American Dictionary. I also had no clue what the 100 Mile Diet was, though in retrospect, it should be pretty easy to figure out.

I have been fascinated with the subject of additives to our foods and a more natural way of eating for quite some time. That is what lead me to read books on the subject. With this book, Barbara Kingsolver has written in a fascinating and approachable way about what it means to really know your food sources. However, it's about more than just that. It's about working for and truly enjoying your food, not just settling for the closest and fastest thing available. It's about being connected to the community that labors together to produce, savoring the best that the seasons have to offer and not taking it all for granted.

There are recipes, informative sidebars written by her husband, Steven Hopp, and sections by her daughter Camille that share a young person's perspective on being raised and living this way. In fact, the best parts of the book for me were about how this all tied in as a family experience. Everyone does their part and enjoys gathering together to perform the work, however difficult it is, as well as reap the benefits.

There were some areas where I didn't agree with the author due to philosophical differences but, overall, I loved this book!

I enjoyed this book! The writing style was easy, informative and very motivational! What a neat topic to research for a year. This an easy and comfortable book to curl up with. I hope it changes the world! I recommend it for the health of your family and the planet!

You'd probably like this book if you're looking to introduce natural or organic food consumption into your every day like. For me, it was a waste of $9. It was a slow read and did not hold my interest.

This is a fascinating, insightful, well written and easy-to-read book explaining in detail how our dependency on food from global sources has made us that much more dependent on oil to have the food brought to us, and this is an extremely enlightening description of how we can rid ourselves of this fuel dependency as a society by changing things in our life through changing what we choose to eat, and deciding for ourselves what we will tolerate as far as how the food is distributed throughout the world, and from where. This book illuminates the facts of how simple food expectations that we are unaware of but are ingrained deeply into our social structures which connect to other people and societies through out the world, can be altered in ways that are dependent on US individually to make, not through our governments. It describes how our government, economy and the treatment of food starting from the creation of hybrid seeds, to the ability the seeds have to resist insects, to how it gets to us at the table, is intertwined in such a way that we can no longer have the capacity to grow naturally, or organically, on a global scale. It is frightening what has been done, yet there is still hope for us.

A fascinating account of a family's journey to live off the land--THEIR land. The discussion of how our food supply has changed in the last 50+ years and how it affects our health and our economy is excellent, something we all should be thinking about.

This is well written and very informative. In today's world we do need to take back some of the healthy past when it comes to food. This is a great teaching tool. I would recommend this book to everyone.

Thinking globally and acting locally, novelist Barbara Kingsolver and her family decided to move from their home in Tucson, Arizona to their farm on which they had only previously vacationed in southwestern Virginia. Appalachia. Kingsolver, who has a graduate degree in biology, and her husband, Stephen Hopps, an environmental scientist, knew that Tucson was a desert community stressing natural resources and carbon-fueled transport just trying to keep its increasing population in water and foodstuffs produced on large corporate farms hundreds of miles away. They also knew they had a place to go to where they could live more simply, closer to the land. In the spring of 2005 they began a year of eating locally--foods they grew or raised or otherwise came from within a 100-mile radius, from small farmers and businesses. This book is an account of that year.

It was a lot of work: Kingsolver and Hopps have other jobs to keep them busy, but they farmed their land and raised chickens and turkeys, for the eggs and for the meat. They were ever conscious of how every decision they made reflected back on global warming, the high price of oil, genetically modified foods, collapsing small farm economies, the obesity epidemic, endangered species, pesticide residues in food, mad cow disease, etc. Kingsolver reviews a lot of the issues, and Hopp contributes intermittent essays on policy and action, coming down on the side of small, organic and heirloom species every time. The family, which includes young Lily, who cared for the chickens and eggs, and college-bound Camille, the family cook who supplies accompanying recipes and reflection, enjoyed support from their community and extended family, which made walking the talk possible. That, and a lot of canning and freezing to get them through the winter when nothing fresh was in season.

Kingsolver finds the process of feeding individual hunger to be part of a huge dynamic and her book weaves government policy and scientific research with personal experiences like cooking, celebrating birthdays, and the other people with whom they interact. There is a chapter on the harvesting of poultry. It is honest and respectful. Not everyone can do it, but on a farm it is necessary and part of the life cycle. Kingsolver is elegiac about the lifestyle, and speaks out against our culture's celebration of urbanity as the ideal and farming as something old, simple and dirty.

Kingsolver's book came just at the right time for those of us who are concerned about our environment and our food sources. I was very excited to read about the good things that are found in really "organic" or homegrown foods. It does take time and thought to find and eat foods which are grown for their nutritive value more than their sales value, but it is certainly well worth the trouble. I heard about this book on NPR and really wanted to find out more. I can honestly say it has changed my thinking and my eating habits. I am even making my own cheese with milk from local, grass-fed cows! The farmers have had it right all these years.

I have learned so much from this book about the society, communities, stuggles, and the goodness of people. I love to live naturally and simple; this book brings out the simplicity of life. This book is full of life and the true meaning of living with and in nature. This book is full of advice and stories of those before us. Take time to treasure what we are blessed with on this Earth, and you will reap the goodness of it and learn from the mistakes with grace and strength. HAVE FUN WITH NATURE, FOOD, AND LIVING. Oh, the recipe ideas are great in this book also. The ideas for giving are wonderful.

I'm sure I can't add additional glowing praise for this book that hasn't already been said, but as someone who is actively living this life, as a large-scale organic farmer who tries hard to raise all our own food and put priority on our family sitting down at a meal that consists primarily of our own meat, milk, cheese, vegetables, fruit, and grain (fresh ground for bread) - year round, I am loving each and every experience that Barbara Kingsolver describes in her wonderful, eloquent, humble, and amusing manner.

She is such a good writer, she uses words so well to convey ideas and personality - and her topics here are right on the mark. To be able to eloquently explain the reasons for growing your own and working together as a family to provide and preserve your own food, for eating meat, avoiding pesticides, abhoring factory farming, and especially enjoying the flavors and purpose of fresh local food and the people with you - I am just so glad she took the time to write this book. Through it, she has given us a invaluable gift.

Regardless of whether you read it as a tourist, observing amusedly such quaint antics, or as a student, trying to learn how to be more self-sufficient, or as a co-practitioner, knowing well how it feels to be working in a hot kitchen in August canning countless jars of tomatoes - this is a book to be savored and saved.

This book documents Kingsolver's commitment to live off the local land for one year. During the commitment year, Kingsolver, her husband, and her two daughters tended a garden and raised chickens and turkeys on their small farm in Virginia. The family supplemented their food stores with trips to the local farmers' market and with a few, strictly limited, non-local items (like coffee and olive oil). I enjoyed this charming account of the seasonality of produce, the work required to harvest and prepare fresh foods, and the family's enjoyment of their time spent on the land. Although I'm not the slightest bit tempted to plant a garden or raise livestock after reading this book, Kingsolver has a convincing argument, and I have been persuaded to begin buying produce and meat from local farmers. I highly recommend this book if you're interested in the food economy, the environment, or nutrition.

This summer I have read this book along with Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Both of these explore the current state of food production in the US as well as look that the organic and local food movements. These
books are not about being a vegetarian and actually push the other way. Ms. Kingsolver's work is mainly about her family's efforts to eat locally for a year. The book is full of information abut our traditional food production and the advantages of eating locally produced food. The book has many recipes for making great meals and even discusses ways to make your own cheese! Highly recommended, especially if you have questions about the food you are currently purchasing.

I was a fan of Kingsolver until reading this book. I loved her insight about pesticides in The Poisonwood Bible, and I've read all of her other novels. A, V, M was terrible - describes a year of eating locally. But, this was no challenge to Kingsolver. She easily has the means to do this, and had apparently been doing this anyway for years. It would have been great to read a memoir on this theme by people who actually are like the rest of us - now that would have been a hoot. This is also is not a feel-good book. Although there are some things in there I'd like to do (I like the Friday night homemade pizza tradition), after reading it, I feel bad that I'm not baking my own bread, making my own cheese (yes, really!), raising my own chickens, etc. Reading this is way, way worse than watching or reading anything by Martha Stewart. Moreover, Kingsolver just comes across as a nerd, sorry to be so crass. I am sorry I wasted money on this - wish I spent it at the farmers' market.

As I read this book, I found myself turned off by the pious tone Kingsolver took in the first chapter. I am a passionate locavore to the extent possible, and my family is devotedly organic, but this conversion only took place over the last four years of my life. The first chapter reminded me how I felt when my preachy acquaintences tried to push that lifestyle on me. I agree that Americans need a good dose of the truth when it comes to food policy, but it can be delivered without making anyone feel defensive. Also, I must state that Kingsolver does not exactly qualify as "everywoman" when she speaks of the challenges of incorporating this life as a working mother...I'm not sure that being a full-time writer is quite the same as running home from an 8-5 job to get dinner ready.

If you can get past that first chapter, however, the rest of the book is quite enjoyable, and very informative. I found myself intrigued by the incredible storage vegatable bounty and on the edge of my seat to learn whether heritage turkeys would indeed reproduce. Despite my initial misgivings, I will make this book part of my permanent collection simply because I hope to incorporate much of its wisdom in my personal garden.

Bottom line: great info, but please do not recommend this to your friends and family who don't already subscribe to the locavore liturgy; it will probably only reinforce the inaccurate perception that the local food movement is home to uppity snobs out of touch with the realities of middle class America. Michael Pollan is a much better read for the masses.

As a fan of Barbara Kingsolver other books, I expected an insightful, warm story about her year. Instead it is nothing but a boring lecture on the state of food in this country. I have more than enjoyed coming to those realizations through Michael Pollan's, In Defense of Food and the Omnivores Dilemma without being brow beaten and lectured to. Her tone is so high and mighty that I had to resist throwing the book out of my window more than once. This is an important topic for all people who eat to be aware of, but books like this make you want to run to the closest fast food restaurant.

I love all things written by Barbara Kingsolver. This book provides practical ways a person can become a little less dependent on store purchased foods (especially those out of season) and a little more aware of where the food they are eating is from. Recipes, ideas, and facts are included in the book. While many people reading the book won't make the commitment that Kingsolver makes to eat an entire year using only local and home grown foods, all of us can use the advice and tips she gives. One of the most poignant facts involves how much oil/gas is saved if every family ate only ONE locally grown meal per week. I had never really considered the impact of moving so much food around the country. Some of the stories are humorous, others are very fascinating with the detailed description she provides. I say...give the book a try, it might just make you think a little bit or a lot differently about your food.

This book was a true disappointment.

While I understand and agree with many of her ideals, such as growing one's own produce and eating locally, this book is written from the perspective of a wealthy millionaire who can gaze with disdain on the masses eating at the 99cent menu at Taco Bell from her the inside of her airconditioned $40,000 hybrid car while munching on her organic self-canned tomatoes that actually cost more in energy than purchasing them at the local den of evil, Kroger.

The fact is, if you live in subsidized housing in a large city, and survive on food stamps, or a tiny food budget, you probably are not going to trek across the city to the chi chi farmers market to buy heirloom tomatoes, even if it does take food stamps. The more likely scenario is making your purchases as close to home as possible, for as cheaply as possible. When the organic, locally grown apples are twice the price of conventional, then that is half as much food that can be provided to a family struggling to get by.

Tell me something I didnt already know, Ms Kingslover, local is better. Now show me how to afford it.

I love anything written by Barbara Kingsolver. She has a way with words that is amazing to me.
This is the first nonfiction I've read from her, and I love it. It was a perfect choice for me since I have lately been interested in starting my own garden, and eating locally and organically as often as possible.
Even though I agree with most of what she and her family are saying, she can be a little preachy about how the world is wrong to live the way its been living. However, she makes up for it in many ways. She has great stories about neighbors and friends making the same efforts to live locally that really help me feel better about the Earth. The variety of the heirloom veggies she lists and grows makes me wonder what I've been eating all my life!
There are lots of great links listed throughout the book for more information on her discussions, Steven Hopp's information, and Camille Kingsolver's recipes.
This is a great book. I recommend it to anyone who likes this author or wants to know more about gardening and living healthy and preserving an American way of life.

While reading this book, I went through my cabinets and looked at where some of the products I buy come from. Honey from South America? There is honey at my LOCAL farmers market! Eggs 400 miles away? I see a sign for "Fresh Brown Eggs" on my way home everyday! While we may not have enough land to raise all my food for the year, with a little planning, most of our food can be brought local, and raised at home. A very enlightening book. I very much enjoyed it.
Karen
www.Gardenchick.com

Very few books make me want to be a better person, even fewer make it seem easy. Kingsolver's engaging writing style was as fresh as her veggies. I've spent the past week identifying the location of everything on my plate and feeling better about the future than I thought possible.

I'm amazed that so many negative reviewers claimed that Ms Kingsolver's tone was smug. I did not get that impression at all, nor was I smacked in the face with "wealth". I suppose some people are just looking to be offended, from any and all directions.

Rather, I found her tone refreshing. Her talent as a writer and her passion as a lover of good food, gardening, and the environment came together beautifully to create an entertaining and inspiring read.

I highly recommend it, along with Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The book is most informative and an eye opener of our food sources. I would love to follow the Kingsolver/Hopp family's "A Year of Food Life" and maybe I'll be able to at some point. Anyway, the book is wonderful.

This is not only an outline and testament of one family being committed to local food production and consumption, it is a view into the lives of the author and her family. Sidebars from her husband provide more motivation and reason to become a Locavore. Her daughter provides excellent commentary on various parts and stages of the project as well as some excellent recipes that I look forward to trying myself. This book has motivated my wife and I to be more committed to being Locavores. Here in NW North Carolina we also have many local farmers that provide reasonably priced produce, meat, milk and cheeses, and other food items that are organically raised/grown. Thank you Ms. Kingsolver for sharing your experience on becoming a Locavore. My wife and I are more committed to local farmers as a result of your work and we have recommended this book to our family and friends.

I first read this book just over a year ago, starting to read while sitting in a full auditorium waiting for author Barbara Kingsolver to begin speaking. I made it through the first ten pages or so before she began. For the next hour she read and discussed her book and graciously answered audience questions. Her interesting stories and personable manner drew me in. Afterwards, I couldn't wait to continue reading! This book lived up to my expectations. Premise? Her family made a decision to move to the Virginian Appalacians, grow their own food, raise chickens and turkeys, and buy what they couldn't grow/raise themselves from local farmers. They made tough decisions, worked hard, and had some wonderful stories to tell along the way. In her writing, interspersed with essays by her husband and college-age daughter, Ms. Kingsolver takes us on their year-long journey of eating locally.

Barbara Kingsolver is not suggesting that we all should be able to do what her family accomplished - growing much of their own food, supplimented with food grown locally primarily by people she knew in her own community. Rather, she is sharing her family's story, much of it humerous, some of it sobering, and all of it educational. She is sharing the rationale of why they chose to do what they did. She admits that most families won't be able to make changes to the extent that her family did. Rather, she suggests that we all might be able to eat more locally. Whether that means beginning your own backyard garden, growing herbs in pots, buying from your local farmers market, or even reading labels in your grocery store... every bit counts.

Thanks to Ms. Kingsolver for changing the way I think about food.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. The premise is idealistic: to live on home-produced and locally raised food for one year. The authors are likeable: Kingsolver herself, a sharp and sometimes ironic observer, her daughter Camille, a cook and contributor of earnest little essays on eating well; the author's husband, Steven, who contributes scientific sidebars on all sorts of things associated with food production. I myself am a longtime devoted organic gardener, raiser of chickens and beef, and evangelical bore on the topic of compost. I'm with this family one hundred percent. Unfortunately, the book is all over the place. It is full of tidbits and interesting information, but very little useful guidance. If you're a gardener, you won't learn much from Kingsolver's ecstatic prose. Does she have a secret for getting rid of potato bugs? Does she cut her tomato hornworms with scissors or drop them in a bucket of soapy water? Are there ever problems in this Appalachian paradise? Not too many, evidently, although gardeners know that keeping a garden is unpredictable (it rains, it doesn't rain) and demanding. When Kingsolver writes best, she keeps a narrow focus, as in her fine depiction of the intricacies of breeding turkeys. But even this tale is maddeningly broken up, as if it were fiction, by a family trip to Italy. Will the poults hatch? The reader must stay tuned. I also think that readers contemplating a shift to eating seasonally and buying locally might be a bit daunted by the efforts of Kingsolver and her family, particularly if they don't keep writer's hours. Read Michael Pollan on the same subject, particularly (in this order) "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" for much more practical, do-able ideas, particularly if you don't own your own farm. If you can raise your own tomatoes---and you should if you have the opportunity---that's fabulous. But if you can't, I fear this book has little to offer except some charming stories.

Once you get through the first chapter (which does have a stern tone for the typical American food lifestyle), the book is fun, inspiring, humorous, and somehow humble. Barbara Kingsolver has a great approach to reporting on her year of eating locally. You get the inside scoop on some things you may never do (such as killing your own roosters) to things that even city dwellers can manage (like planting a small window box of edibles and visiting your local farmer's market). I loved it!

This is an awesome book for anyone who consumes or prepares food. There is so much information that a smart consumer should know about the origin of their foods. Not only is this book informative , it is entertainging to follow Ms. Kingsolver and her family on their journey to slow food.
There are also some fabulous and healthy recipies ( I have tried about 4 of them and all get 5 stars!).

This is the second book I have read of Barbara Kingsolver, the other, The Poisonwood Bible, I must read again because the details of that particular piece are a bit sketchy, but I digress...
Recent events highlighted in the news, bulldozed bloated and sickly cows and salmonella tainted tomatoes make opting out of our national food chain a viable option. This book defined many terms and allowed me to expand my vocabulary for example by defining "locavore" and CAFOs, and just in many ways increased my awareness of what I was putting in my mouth. This book higlighted all the work and preparation required to raise food and the importance of supporting local small farmers. Granted we all do not have a back 20 or 40 to till and grow or own vegetable and raise animals to provide meat to eat nor do we have the time and most of us don't have the inclination to do such. But we can support our farmers by buying direct in local farmer's markets and vegetable stands. By buying directly we also support only our consumption of quality foods. Also we are reminded of seasonality and regionality of food through Ms. Kingsolver's work. Tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits maybe should not be available year round or bred to survive being shipped from around the world because certain vegetables only grow well in certain regions and lose nutrients and disease fighting capabilities when they are bred to withstand the rigors of travel and grocery store shelf life. Hat's Off to Ms, Kingsolver and her family for their commitment to this daunting undertaking. This book encouraged me to become a locavore and I started my own garden this year. I also found out about an organization called Seed Savers and endeavor to produce some of those plants. I have also gained a greater respect for the land that produces the bounty we take for granted and have gained a greater respect for those that are able to coax the bounty from the land and nourish us all.