This Organic Life

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow is already considered a "classic" in the growing number of books being put out that are about "going Green." Written in 2001, she predates Barbara Kingsolver's experiment of growing everything you eat for a year. This is not an experiment. This is how she lives.

Gussow is a friendly writer. She makes herself sound like the cheery next door neighbor with the good gardening tips that we would all love to have. Going "Green" is nothing new to her. To her this is just good gardening. And she manages to do it in a small plot that has flooding issues, by the Hudson in the outer suburbs of New York. Her and her artist husband's struggles to create a "retirement" home from a very old property takes center stage in the book. She is more concerned with the garden - because that is what already provides them with most of their food. And it is a struggle. And their life is a struggle. And each growing season is different and has its own unique challenges.

A great story about how the careful care taking of the land provides you a glimpse into the character of the people. A story of patience and hard work, and a must read for vegetable garden lovers. And there are some great recipes for those times when you have an explosion of vegetables. A very good read.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (with Stephen L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver) is a book about family: her family, the farming and agricultural family, and the family of men. (And it is written with her family - her daughter provides the recipes and nutrition segments, her husband, the food industry issues.) Can one family of four sustain themselves on locally grown food for a year? That is the question that Kingsolver and her family attempt to solve. It helps that they live on a farm in southwest Virginia, but they "survive" by growing and raising their own food, going to local farmer's markets and seeing where items are grown in their local stores. Her segment on turkey reproduction is very funny and scary. Funny - from her descriptions - scary, when you realize that certain breeds no longer reproduce naturally at all - it is bred out of the birds.


Do they make - sure. Is it easy? Not so much, but the tone in which Kingsolver writes just guides you through the seasons. She does not have the stridency of a convert, for she writes about their dilemmas and "must have" items (coffee for the adults, mac and cheese for the kids and their friends) with candidness. But she gives the reader hope that the food environment is changing-back to food grown in healthy ways for both the farmer and pickers and the eaters. And she provides resources and recipes to help the average folk contribute along their path. As someone who grew up with a large vegetable garden and canning, I really liked how she handled the whole topic of raising your own food. I was very impressed by her writing - I think I need to try one of her other writings. A great thoughtful read.

Mysteries on Martha's Vineyard

Victoria Trumbull is the main character in Cythnia Riggs' mystery series. She is ninety-two and solving crime on Martha's Vineyard. And she makes these mysteries great fun. She knows everyone on the island and it is very funny when she takes bullies, who are trying to threaten her, down a peg by asking after their grandmothers. Her helpfulness to the sheriff in town - who is an outsider - earns her a deputyship! She is not perfect - she has aches and pains, disdains anyone who puts old people down, and can be mule headed. But how could you not love a person so full of life, her love of place - the island and it's people - and with the curiousity and the energy of a person half her age?

Deadly Nightshade,

The Cranefly Orchid Murders,

The Cemetary Yew

I have read the first three and am looking for more. Try 'em you'll like 'em.