Marci gave me the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for my birthday in June. I LOVED it. I read it slowly and tried to absorb new ideas, recipes and thinking along the way. It is not a page-turner as in "what will happen next" but a delightful lesson in living better personally and environmentally. I highly recommend it.

The book is about a family who decides that for one year they will only eat those things that they either produce on their small farm or that have been produced within a 100 mile radius. They each got one "free" item that didn't have to fall in those guidelines...the author's being various spices, the husband being coffee. Can't recall the daughters choices, but I know mine would have been chocolate in all forms. Would that count as one?

This book really made me think about how much money we spend on getting food to our tables and some foods are close to 90% of their total cost for fossil fuel...and only 10% for the food! Also, last year when Marci and I drove down to Texas, we passed some very sad feed lots in New Mexico where the cattle stood ankle deep in mud and muck with no fresh grass, no shade, no trees, just brown and gray dirt, metal fences and piles of manure to live their days in. It really, really bothered me and the book made me think about it even more. I also have a son who is vegetarian and he had made the comment that if he knew the animals had been treated respectfully, had happy lives and were allowed to live like animals should...fresh air, fresh food, room to roam, he would be more tempted to eat meat again. Sorry Matt, the thing you crave most, an Arby's roast beef sandwich, probably doesn't qualify. So after doing some research I came across a pair of young men at the Logan farmer's market and decided to practice what I have started preaching and ordered an eighth of a beef that has been grazed in open forest land and only corralled the last 2 weeks of its beefy life. It is more expensive, but I feel so much better about it.

A few weeks ago I was also thinking about eggs and asked Mike what he though about raising chickens. He got this odd look on his face and politely, but firmly said "NO". Could it be the bucks we spent on the bees he is thinking about? Anyway, not 2 days later a sign went up on a house two blocks away and we have now prepayed for farm fresh eggs with orange yolks for 3 months. AND I don't have to clean a hen house!

I even tried my hand at making mozzarella cheese...which was a success, very easy with just 3 ingredients and delicious! I bought the milk from a friend who has a single milk cow a block over and boy, did I feel domestic!

Right now we are eating way too much zuchinni and yellow squash, green beans, cucumers and beets. We can hardly wait for the tomatoes and corn to turn the corner into overabundance and I am drying apricots as fast as I can. The raspberries are done, and the strawberries are slow. I am watching the pears and apples and peaches and hope they will get a little bigger. I am praying our honeybees know more about making honey than we do.

It feels good to treat the earth and our food sources kindly, to support our local growers and farmer's markets and to eat local. Read the book and see if some of this makes sense to you.