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| Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally
Hardcover
Edition: 1
Author: Alisa Smith, J.B. Mackinnon
Publisher: Harmony
Release Date: 2007-04-24
ISBN-10: 030734732X
ISBN-13: 9780307347329
List Price: $24.00
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; every ingredient had a story, a direct line they could trace from the soil to their forks. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives?
Back in the city, they began to research the origins of the items that stocked the shelves of their local supermarket. They were shocked to discover that a typical ingredient in a North American meal travels roughly the distance between Boulder, Colorado, and New York City before it reaches the plate. Like so many people, Smith and MacKinnon were trying to live more lightly on the planet; meanwhile, their “SUV diet” was producing greenhouse gases and smog at an unparalleled rate. So they decided on an experiment: For one year they would eat only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.
It wouldn’t be easy. Stepping outside the industrial food system, Smith and MacKinnon found themselves relying on World War II–era cookbooks and maverick farmers who refused to play by the rules of a global economy. What began as a struggle slowly transformed into one of the deepest pleasures of their lives. For the first time they felt connected to the people and the places that sustain them.
For Smith and MacKinnon, the 100-mile diet became a journey whose destination was, simply, home. From the satisfaction of pulling their own crop of garlic out of the earth to pitched battles over canning tomatoes, Plenty is about eating locally and thinking globally.
The authors’ food-focused experiment questions globalization, monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and the tattering threads of community. Thought-provoking and inspiring, Plenty offers more than a way of eating. In the end, it’s a new way of looking at the world.
Best Memoir I've Read
| Customer Rating: | | I thought "Plenty" was a fantastic book. I had downloaded and read their journal from online before the book came out and loved it. The book was frosting on the cake with its primary data and documentation which support their (and our) efforts to relocalize our eating. Alisa and James' search for local food echos our own in an efforts to personally relocalize in a town that doesn't have much insight into what's happening in the world. Ya done good, kids! You go! |
They needed a Wife!
| Customer Rating: | This was enjoyable, but not as good as Animal,Vegtable,.. the biggest lesson, they needed a wife to shop, cook and preserve food, it was almost a full time job. This came as a big surprise, and was not addressed directly in the book. I think they expected just a little more local shopping effort. As the year progressed they got needed attention for writing careers.
Please do not can or preserve any food using their advice, and their ancient cookbook. Please buy and follow the directions of Ball canning. I felt they came very close to food/potamine posioning due to careless food handling.
I grew tired of all their personal problems, can anyone write a book without throwing in all their personal garbage? none of which advanced the book.
I am a locavore, bake all my own bread, have four chickens and a small greenspace for veggies and my 76 year old mom and I can/freeze some food in the fall.I live in the city, and I will not spend 17$ for salad greens. Food is a local issue and its a job/work,,, one many Americans have forgotten about. The book did not address the longterm issue of how much work it is to grow, find , cook ,pereserve food. After all they were only in it for a year of publicity. |
Two excellent writers tell a personal and informing tale
| Customer Rating: | | Even if you want to eat at McDonald's every day and your idea of eating local is only going to Costcos within 20 miles, you will enjoy this book (and you might even gain from some reflection inspired by the book). The authors are very gifted and share personal and interesting events and reflections in a narrative that is a page-turner. Kudos for that alone. Their dedication to their 100 mile pledge, and their tenacity and smarts at following it, while growing through a challenging patch in their personal relationship, is admirable and makes for compelling reading. Some pages do wax preachy, but only a few. Sometimes James overdoes the metaphors, and he makes a wry nod to this possibility late in the book when he admits that maybe sometimes a walnut is just a walnut. Now and then the two come off as a little precious, but nothing wrong with that -- better a real picture than an altered one. Interestingly, until the book gave cues of their age, I thought they were in their late 40s or so -- the early chapters are written in the voices of people who have lived awhile. On the one hand, I assume there is a maturity and depth in these 30 somethings that I should have had at that age; on the other hand, I do hope they lighten up sometimes. The takeway, however, is that this is a terrific read. |
Satisfying to Stomach and Soul
| Customer Rating: |
Makes you hungry for REAL food
Opens a new world, hidden away for too long
Beautiful and truthful
Essential for here and now and the future of our food supply
Tasty & worth reading!! |
A truly inspirational read
| Customer Rating: | This very personal account is a very inspiring and motivational book. While reading this, I couldn't stop telling people about the ideas, the stories and the passion of what i was reading. I checked the local farm market schedule midway through the book and am very excited to be going this week.
I think some other people are missing the point. This book isn't trying to convert everyone to a local diet. They don't always make the most environmentally friendly decisions, but it's the connection with the food and where it comes from, that's what is the moral of this story.
Between knowing your own fisherman, to making your own salt... to just knowing the season of what is fresh and local. The simple concept of 'who knows what asparagus season is' hit home... and I immediately downloaded the local crops information.
Too often, we are trying to cut spending and we hurt for it. Paying good money for good food is something definately worthwhile. I'm not going to pickle my vegetables, and live on beets for the winter... but it's a story that really makes me question what I'm eating, and where it comes from.
Consequently, I haven't been to a fast food place since reading this. Much better of an argument for me than fast food nation, or supersize this. The was truly a gem. |
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