I'm Gobbling Up This Book
Each day lately I look forward to the sliver of time between when I stop working, around 11 P.M., and can no longer stay awake, around, oh, midnight.
It's the only time I have for reading, which has finally, FINALLY, re-entered my life after a nearly year of pregnancy insomnia (all right, getting up all night to pee) followed by three years with a child who has deep disregard for anyone's need for sleep, including her own. It took thirty-eight months, but at last Baby A has started sleeping for long stretches, even (gasp!) all night long. That kind of sleep deprivation? It's enough to make you collapse into bed once the work and housework are done. Or cry. Or both. Reading? Not so much an option for eyes that can't stay open.
What a treat, then, what a LUXURY to crawl into our lovely bed, nestle down, tune in to the song of the katydids and crickets and cicadas outside, and open Barbara Kingsolver's memoir Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. She and her family moved to a farm in the Virginia mountains and agreed to eat only locally raised foods for a year, excepting only a tiny handful of ingredients, such as flour, which they couldn't source. They raised poultry, grew a variety of vegetables, and shopped nearby farmer's markets for nearly everything the family consumed. Kingsolver journals that year with an easy, humorous tone. Her husband, a college professor, contributes short pieces throughout, and her older daughter Camille, a student at Duke (YEAH!), writes essays and recipes to close each chapter.
Kingsolver's got me thinking...
* How much energy goes into transporting the things we buy and eat? Why not buy North Carolina apples, instead of ones shipped all they way across the country, or from New Zealand?
* How could I spend more of our family's money locally? Is it more satisfying to know that money is going right into nearby farmers' pockets?
* What do I want to teach Baby A about the seasons and seasonality of our foods? About where and how our foods grow, and who grows them?
* How do I want Baby A to remember our mealtimes? As fun and collaborative times? Will she value them more if she's part of the shopping and cooking processes and learns that it's worth putting effort and time into them? Any meal, of course, can be a social occasion, and restaurant meals can let you cut straight to the enjoyable parts (without the clean-up, too). Should I change or be more aware of our use of restaurant meals?
* If Kingsolver—a working mom to two—and her husband can make their own bread and cheese every day, can't I manage to cook a few more of our meals from scratch? (Answer: Some days, yes. Others? Ha.)
Of course, The point of Quick Serve Kids is to explore this: When you do decide to take the family out for a quick meal at a chain restaurant—however often that might be—here's how to make choices that sit well with your philosophy. At the same time, restaurant executives can learn what we parents value (and don't) in fast-food or fast-casual experiences.
The other night, The Wonderful Husband argued that in some ways I'm anti-fast-food. Right now, he might be right. It's August. The farmer's markets are overflowing with great stuff. (I had one farmer piling extra tomatoes on my basket this afternoon: "This time of year they just all need to be eaten!," he said. He was right, and tonight we ate every drop of sauce made with at least ten local tomatoes.) What parent and child who are home, or near home, most days really need fast food?
That's just how it is right now for us, the summertime version of our family life. If I were working in an office, things would be different. And soon, as the weather cools off and preschool and workloads and holiday errands start weighing on us, I imagine I'll turn to quick meal solutions once again. In the meantime, we can still talk about this stuff.
Now, excuse me. It's time to take my three functioning brain cells to bed and read more of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. As with any great meal, I'll be sad when it's done. Read it for yourself. I bet you'll feel the same way.
Buy it now if you'd like, using this link:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Comments
My daughter and I got a plot in the local city gardens this spring. She is so interested in vegetables now that she is growing her own. When I brought the first harvest of cucumbers home, she demanded to eat them for breakfast. We did. That morning and for nearly every meal after that until the cucumber plants were spent.
She's never been fond of green leafies but fresh basil from her garden -- LOVES IT. Especially with her fresh tomatoes (and some store-bought mozarella and olive oil). Same goes for the cucumbers and watermelon.
So this is my pitch for growing a garden with your child and watching their inclination for food experimentation expand.
Posted by: Dana | August 16, 2007 01:00 PM
Lots of "food for thought" here.
I'll comment on just one issue -- buying locally vs. globally. Sometimes foods with low "food miles" can make a more negative impact on the environment (squander more carbon) than foods that have traveled further to get to you. Its complex. James McWilliams, author of “A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America” has a good piece about this in the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/opinion/06mcwilliams.html?ex=1187496000&en=59c79f81675892fc&ei=5070
Posted by: MissyT | August 17, 2007 11:54 AM