Interesting Book

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is getting interesting. I've gotten past the introductory stuff on how they moved and how people nowadays don't understand where food comes from - all fine, but now the story is really beginning. I just finished the chapter on early spring when they began their year of eating locally.

First of all, I related to her when she talked about moving into their house before the doorknobs were put on! They renovated an old farmhouse, whereas we built new, but it's fun to be able to relate to an author's experience. They put in a small garden the first summer, but they were too busy with house-related stuff to really get going on food production. Been there, done that; we had a garden, but this year the fruit trees are going in, we're getting chickens, and we want to expand the garden.

Secondly, I'm enjoying her writing style. When she was saying that they were beginning their year in the early spring because their asparagus was ready to eat, but they were despairing of finding any locally-grown fresh fruit so early as they were heading to the farmer's market, I was thinking, "Rhubarb! She's going to find rhubarb!" I love it when a book makes me feel smart for figuring out a mystery.

She talked about how asparagus is only good the day it is picked. I have never in my life eaten truly fresh asparagus, so that intrigues me. Maybe it's like sweet corn. I wonder if people who don't live in an area where sweet corn grows have any idea how good it is. Sweet corn is not worth bothering with when you get it from the grocery store even the next day after picking, not to mention several days later. I have a vegetable gardening book that says that a developer of sweet corn varieties from the University of Illinois advised boiling your water first, then picking the corn and husking it as you run to the kitchen! I think my dad would agree with him.