Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet

I loved this book, by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. It is their personal memoir of what their life was like over a year of eating only foods they could get within a 100-mile radius of their home (which is normally in Vancouver, although they did stay elsewhere a few times).

I love their reasons for eating locally. I loved hearing about how delicious the food was, and how satisfying it was to grow your own, or to buy from a familiar face, or to experiment in the kitchen with whatever was at hand. I loved hearing about the sense of community they grew out of this experiment, how much more connected it made them feel not only with their food but with their food providers, with their world.

Inspirational AND fun--two words that aren't often combined in one book. I would recommend this to anyone, and especially to foodies. It was great.

Here is their great website, too. If you want to try local for a week or a month, or for one meal a week, or whatever makes sense for you, or even if you just want to buy more local available products, it is a great resource. Look at all the Oklahoma farmers! Yay!

1 comment:

Kim Allen-Niesen said...

This year we started receiving a weekly box of organic veggies and fruit, many of which are local, and it has been fantastic. First, having the veggies on hand makes dinner feel so much easier. Second, the fruit has brought variety to what the kids receive in their lunches. Third, it's easier to plan for meals when you pick from the veggies in your frig.