I’m winding down Garden, Farming and Food month with my second-last post, this one the sequel to my earlier round-up of the titles you’ll find on the GFF section of my bookshelf. If these descriptions whet your appetite, all title links will lead you back to a more in-depth review and clicking on the title images will bring you back to the publisher’s catalogue page.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
I opened the month with this essential local food memoir by critically acclaimed novelist Kingsolver (with contributions from her husband and daughter). While most people don’t have the freedom or resources of Kingsolver, the life she chooses to live is still something to aspire to, if only in part, and her research and well-reasoned opinions provide much food for thought. I’d still promote Trauma Farm as my locovore/farming gateway drug of choice, but Animal, Vegetable, Miracle also provides a valuable starting point.
Good Food For All: Seasonal Recipes from a Community Garden
This is undoubtedly my favourite cookbook. It is published by (and supports) The Stop, a Toronto community food center that advocates for healthy food as a basic human right. Its two locations support an incredible program that focuses on [...]
By JK, on April 26th, 2012 The back cover of The Backyard Homestead claims you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, and 75 pounds of pork for a quarter of an acre of land. Whether this is an and/or situation is unclear (an “and” situation seems impossible), but the philosophy of getting the maximum yield from a small space is the guiding principle of the book itself, which is practically bursting at the seams with information.
It’s almost overwhelming, actually. While books like The City Homesteader allowed me to cruise through and get a general idea for things, this book goes even deeper, covering more categories and breaking things down in more detail. Sometimes that’s still not enough: I wouldn’t want to start canning or keep bees relying on this book alone (in fact, the author takes care to tell you you shouldn’t), but you get a pretty realistic picture of what might be involved.
Since I don’t know a lot about wine making or animal husbandry, I always use the gardening sections as the yardstick for the book. In this case, you get enough detail to grow your veg relying on this book [...]
By JK, on April 17th, 2012 This weekend the Green Living Show came to Toronto, assembling over 400 eco exhibitors in the Direct Energy center. It’s a show I’ve looked forward to since my first visit last year, an opportunity to try new products and hunt for deals, a day of aspirational living.
But I am, at times, an ambivalent ecoholic. I am fanatical about recycling and composting and electricity use. I use earth-friendly cleaning products. I reuse and freecycle. I grow as much of my own (organic) food as possible. I try to eat less meat, and “happy” meat. I take public transit, walk a lot, and am working on my two-wheeler relationship. But that said, there are so many things I don’t do. There are so many things that I’m even afraid to acknowledge that I should do, because so often it leads to guilt and anger.
A big part of the reason is that I feel lied to. By my government who I trusted to protect me from hazardous chemicals, but who I shouldn’t have, given all the insidious things that are in everyday products. By the companies who made those products. By advertisers and beauty magazines who told me I need the product, or [...]
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