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3 out of 5
by
Jen
from
The United States | Aug 10, 2008
This was similar in many ways to Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", in that it is a year-long experiment in eating only local foods. Kingsolver is a much better writer and I enjoyed reading her book more. "Plenty" did, however, supply what I thought was lacking in the other book: realism. "Plenty" documents the difficulties in trying to eat locally: struggling to live without wheat/flour, trying to store potatoes in an urban apartment, staying within a budget(their first dinner cost over $100), and the strain that foraging/preserving/canning placed on their relationship. (On the plus side, their hundred mile radius overlaps on mine, so should I choose to undertake this experiment, I've got some great resources to help me!)
I think both books make the point that local eating is not very practical -- I mean, the authors really have to go out of their way and work for it, you know? They both feel strongly that it is worth the time and effort and they make sacrifices accordingly. Both books speak of being connected: to the environment, to the community, to one's own body and its needs, and even better connections to their families. I loved the "salty" ending, and how they found solutions to all of the major challenges they faced.
5 people found this review helpful
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2 out of 5
by
Sarah
from
Charlottesville, VA | Nov 12, 2008
I should begin by disclosing that I was, from minute one, hugely troubled by the use of the word "raucous" in the title. If it is, indeed, possible to eat in a raucous manner, I don't want to hear about it, much less a year's worth of it. Shudder. You can keep your rowdy, disorderly, strident eating to yourself. One is left to assume, then, that the authors, or a particularly misguided set of marketing people, use "raucous" as do (with great frequency) the college women I work with, who are otherwise charming, if Republican: to signify "extreme in a really fun way." I would object mildly to this, too, since it's non-standard without actually being cool, edgy, fresh, or descriptive.
Instead, however, I'm forced to object strongly. In fact, that catastrophically mischosen adjective becomes a synecdoche for what's wrong with the book. Here's the thing: Ms. Smith and Mr. MacKinnon do not, in the entire course of the book, do anything rowdy, disorderly, or strident. Additionally, they are neither extreme nor really fun. They are both very capable, fluid writers, and they are earnest, honest, and genuine in their attempt to live off foods produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver apartment. But they're not fun or funny. They've written a semi-furious, ultra-serious manifesto (with, granted, a lot of interesting facts about carbon footprints and the history of agriculture) and are trying to sell it (with that word "raucous") as a light-hearted, harmonic memoir of the New Young Green, those wild and crazy guys. The tone is off, and so both authors end up coming across as stodgy, hidebound, kind of... unlikeable.
3 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Amber
from
Buffalo, NY | Feb 5, 2008
This book was the same topic as Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It was a bit of a different perspective though and I enjoyed that. AMV is about a family that lives on a plot of land and they grow most of their own food. Plenty is about a couple (instead of family) that live in an apartment in the middle of the city (instead of the country with land). They have a small community garden plot that they use to supplement their diet when able to. They take you through their story of trying to find what is edible in their area (in their case 100 miles around where they live). They have to find wheat, fruits and vegetables, fish, eggs, milk, salt (which they never find until the year is over) and so forth. They go to u-pick places and preserve strawberries, blackberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, corn etc. They find nut farms, beans, cheese, honey (no sugar, honey only).
It also talks about what this goal/quest/change does to their relationship. It's interesting to see them face adversity together, grow apart, and then in the end realize that they've been happier than ever before.
It begs the thought of "what would I do if I couldn't buy from a grocery store, where would I get my food, do I know where the farms are and what they have to offer, how would I find them".
The couple are Canadians so there where some things/language that I had to decipher but it's worth the read.
This is just one more book that makes me want to grow a garden and buy local foods. I'll try and chronicle our success/failure of doing just that this year.
1 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Sally
from
The United States | Jan 20, 2008
Interesting story, written by 2 freelance writers, interspersed with great essays on the history of food. Some favorite quotes:
A study in the UK showed that the amount of time people now spend driving to the supermarket, looking for parking, and wandering the lengthy aisles in search of a frozen pizza or pre-mixed salad is nearly equal to that spent preparing food from scratch 20 years ago.
Despite eating more than ever before, our culture may be the only one in human history to value food to little. From the African scrublands to the Australian deserts, nomads who collected food daily and never stored it considered sharing food to be the ultimate form of wealth. Among traditional Northwest people, a “poor” person was someone who never troubled to catch his own salmon, but was instead content to eat food produced b others. 158-62
Today is it more efficient for the UK to maintain the $330 million trade from New Zealand for apples, onions, dairy and sheep rather than to produce it in the UK. 221
I had expected the 100- mile experiment to be a platform to think about many things, among them a long list of bummers from climate change to the failure of whole generations to learn how to recognize edible mushrooms. What I could see around the table now was a less tangible consideration: a sense of adventure…. We need to find new ways to live into the future. We can start anytime; we can live them here and now. 222
1 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Chessa
from
Seattle, WA | Oct 29, 2007
Quick read about a couple from Vancouver, B.C. who decide to conduct a one-year experiment in local eating. They draw their boundaries with a 100-mile radius of Vancouver and there their adventures begin.
Similar in themes to Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, this book is neither so broad in scope (in terms of increasing the reader's knowledge of industrial food systems) nor narrow in menus - they didn't talk toooo much about what they ate on a daily basis, which I for one missed. I really would have liked to have heard more about their day-to-day diets. Instead you get a look into how the experiment affected their lives as a couple - kind of interesting tangentially, but not what I was really after as a whole.
Great read though! I love memoirs, and this one combined that with my zest for local-ism, so I am inspired all over again to eat out of my big back yard.
1 people found this review helpful