I found chapters 7-11 much more interesting then the first six chapters. I find when Barbara Kingsolver talks about her experiences and what she has been doing to be much more entertaining than when she talks facts about certain foods and industries. I see that Kingsolver tends to be telling her story of her family taking on this year local food eating challenge much more in chapters 7-11. I found it interesting when Barbara had a party for her 50th birthday because I could relate to the party myself. Coming from a big family that all lived very close to each other, whenever there is a birthday in the family we all get together and celebrate by eating as much food as we can. The menu for her birthday also sounded great with lamb and chicken pizza, which we always had pizza at our birthday parties but they were never homemade or were the ingredients grown locally. There were two other things that I could also connect with, the first one being the hard work. Although I wasn’t plowing fields for crops I worked as a laborer this past summer for my uncles plumbing business. As a laborer I did whatever he told me, which most of my day consisted of moving very long and very heavy pipes around the construction site. The other part of the book that caught my attention, which I can also relate to, is when the family goes on a vacation and they stop at a Farmers Diner. Although I have never been to one, the way I can connect to it is that my brother, cousin and I’s dream is to someday open a restaurant, but this will never happen unless one of us becomes rich. What I thought is if this did happen I would love to try and grow or buy all the food locally. Overall I found the first few chapters to be boring, but once Kingsolver started writing more about her life with her family I was able to connect more with the book.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteYour post caught my attention, I also found the first part of the memoir to be a bumpy beginning. Although I regard them as informative, I did not favor the composition format. I found that her intricate weaving of fact and personality to be a bit overwhelming and thus many points were hidden and hard to pin-point.
I was delighted to read that you related to Barbara's description of her 50th birthday, because I too was reminded of my family at this point in the novel. My large Italian family loves to cook pizza, and socialize together enjoying a laid back visit encompassing tasty foods. You mentioned lamb, I was wondering if you have ever had lamb? I have not, but I'm not too interested in meat products anyway. I was also curious as to where lamb from the local market originates. You do not resemble a butcher or meat distributional employee, my curiousity was peaked by the origins of such produce. I am aware that there are sheep farmers that could supply this good, but do you think there are lamb-slaughterhouses, that perhaps resemble the broken, dangerous conditions of a CAFO? Regardless, of the answer this question is one I probably never would have been led to had I not read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
Interestingly enough I was captivated by how much food, and thus food production, harvest, and maintanence, impact the culture of those involved in the process. This led to me yet another arousing question, do you feel as though family dinners would be enhanced (in experience) or personalized in any way by consuming products that were grown, cultivated and prepared by the intimacy of a family, or perhaps is it the family nad the intimacy would be unchanged by the origin of the food? I know that was a pretty awkward way to state that question, basically do you see any correlation between food grown and food bought and the relationship to the consumer?
Alexandria Valente