Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Basically, Plenty is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for the urban dweller. It's the story of one couple's determination to get off the petrochemicals & pollution diet our global food supply has turned into these past few decades. They made a decision to--for one year--only buy & eat food grown/raised/gathered within 100 miles of their Vancouver, BC, apartment, started blogging about it, and learned just how many people were interested in their story.

I enjoyed how the authors took turns writing the chapters, so readers get two different perspectives on this adventure. I felt I got to know the authors--to the point where I got really anxious when they nearly broke up over canning tomatoes. And they inspired me to plant a garden in my back yard next year as well as to resume purchasing the bulk of my produce from my local farmer's market this summer. I just wish I knew how to cook (or even recognize!) half the vegetables J.B. MacKinnon writes about using.

In reader's advisory terms: the main doorways are story and character, although setting is fairly important as well. Many of the chapters include stories and information about the history of people, wildlife, and food in the Pacific Northwest--which I found fascinating and often sad.

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