I Love Books like 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle'

Barbara Kingsolver's epic tale of a year of homegrown food.

As the holidays quickly approach, I find it gets harder and harder to think of meaningful and heartfelt gifts for my friends and family... especially when it comes to keeping an eye on the budget.  One of my favourite go-to gifts is a fantastic book.  When I read something that moves me or makes me laugh, or resonates long after I've turned the last page, I know I can confidently pass it along and pay forward that great feeling.  Since Mo Farm is now dormant, and I'm trying as hard as I can to hibernate, I'm going to toss out a few book reviews, which I hope can also serve as a menu of gift ideas for the Christmas season!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an amazing read, and was one of the strongest influences that called me into action when it comes to Mo Farm.  I read it last winter, and in my very first blog entry I talked about it and how it compelled me to GET GOING and dig into this new passion I was discovering.  It is at once an engaging story, a personal diary, a how-to manual, and a seasonal catalogue that captures the imagination and doles out generous helpings of wry wit and unabashed humour.

The book is the true story of Barbara Kingsolver and her family making the move from arid Arizona back to lush Appalachia in an attempt to step away from reliance on imported food and water and get back to the simplicity of growing and enjoying food close to home.  They set out to provide as much food for themselves as possible, and to obtain what other resources they need from people that they know personally.  The story in and of itself is engaging enough, but the book is organized by season, and it guides the reader throughout the accounts of successes and failures from the first asparagus in March through to the winter squashes of post-Thankgiving (including 'Harvest Day'... the demise of the turkey) making it a surprisingly useful handbook for those who may be inspired to give the idea a try.      

The story is delivered from Barbara herself in the first person, but is also injected with perspectives in essays from her husband Steven, food stories and recipes from her daughter Camille, and tales of chicken husbandry and the egg business from her young daughter Lily.

If you've ever given thought to the food system in North America, or have ever enjoyed growing a tomato, or even once considered that it would be nice to be a little more self-sustainable, you've got to read this book.  And once you've read it, you've got to give it to someone else for Christmas. 

Little City Girl, Big Country Dreams

Once in a while in my life, I find something that awakens a passion in me that I forgot was there. It happened the day I was invited to try riding a horse after helping to pitch fresh, sweet-smelling straw into the stalls of a barn just outside the city. It happened the first time I saw a band I'd never heard of play live music that plucked strings in my heart and stomach in a small, intimately crowded bar. It happened when I first picked up an SLR camera and managed to capture a candid portrait of a child in soft, beautiful window light. We've all been there. The spark occurs unexpectedly, in seemingly unremarkable circumstances, and perhaps it's because it catches us so completely off guard that it strikes so deeply.

Most recently, passion grabbed hold of me when I was reading a book. In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan had sat, collecting a fine layer of dust, on my bookshelf for months, waiting patiently for me to find the time and desire to pick it up. On the ordinary, unremarkable day that I finally opened the book, I wasn't expecting my life to change. Nor was I expecting to finish the book in the wee hours, after becoming so engrossed in it I was unable (and unwilling) to put it down. I closed the cover and laid back onto by bed with eyes closed and slightly burning, wheels turning in my head, and an itching, restless feeling in my legs. I felt compelled to move. To write. To run. To scream. To ACT. But what to do with all of this new information? What actions could I possibly take to even begin to offset this frantic, sick feeling that was spreading in my stomach?

The book was the first contact I had with a movement that is now growing into a revolution - it's the story of food. Our food, and how we get it. It's something we think so little about, and yet is so important... vital for our survival as a species on this planet! Our industrialized food system is horrifyingly broken, and in becoming aware of this, I found my life forever altered. I dove headlong into a new world, and each new discovery in this world further cemented my suspicion that I was finding the biggest passion of my life. I began reading everything I came across on the subject, each new piece of information adding fire to my belly. Novella Carpenter's Farm City. Thomas F. Pawlick's The End of Food. Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was the last straw. This brings us to present day, and my realization that I have a new direction in my life that will inevitably lead to new discoveries, great joys, and heart-wrenching disappointments.

And so, dear reader, I invite you to join me in this adventure. I am now a little city girl with big country dreams, living in the suburbs of Southern Ontario. I want to grow food. I want to feel connected to the earth again, and to find a better way of life for myself and my husband. I want to wake up in the morning and relish the thought of living. I'm not sure yet what this means, or even what it looks like, but while I figure that out, I'm going to do the best that I can with what I've got.

This is the birth of Mo Farm.