In these chapters, Barbara Kingsolver, the author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle goes into more detail about her personal experience with the growing seasons and how her farm operates. She introduces us to her family by telling stories about her daughter raising chicken in order to raise money to buy a horse and she also tells us about her struggles and all the preparation that went into holding a large family event at her home. She explains how she cooked with what she had, and she makes a great point about how cooking is a dying art. She tries to enthuse the reader about the idea of cooking by relating it to being as exciting as a blind date.
The other thing that stood out to me about these chapters is how in the last decade our country has lost over 300 farms per week. That is a lot of agriculture and animal products that are no longer coming from the local area, but instead large processing plants.
My favorite part of this reading was probably the story she tells about stopping in at The Farmers Diner. I think it is very cool how that place only made food that came from local products. The idea that a restaurant can find enough products within an hours drive to run a restaurant is inspiring and also helps with generating the local economy in that area.
I agree that the detail the author used in the personal examples of how her family is able to eat locally add a lot to the book and help make the lifestyle a real possibility to the reader. The passion the author has for cooking and the first-hand experiences she describes are very encouraging and help remove some of the stigma that has grown around cooking. She truly appreciates her food after she is involved in the entire process of its' growth and learns to look forward to each season's natural foods. The Farmers Diner was really neat to me also, I think her including an example of a successful restaurant who buys locally is further proof of the benefits and reality of local farming lifestyles.
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