Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (HarperCollins, 2007) is a must for vegetable gardeners.

The book chronicles a year in the author’s family as they attempt to eat food that is produced locally, and turn their backs on food that is shipped in from outside their one hour delivery circle. The author accepts that not everyone has the same climate, amount of space or time. It is full of common sense and is an amusing read.

There are some scary facts, including today’s children “are predicted to be this country’s first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents” & “transporting a single calorie of a perishable fresh fruit from California to New York takes about 87 calories worth of fuel”.