déjà vu, but not really a Sunday book review...

I am currently in the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, perhaps the most engaging book of hers that I have ever read. This is non-fiction, but through it you get a glimpse of the inspiration behind so many of her novels. She writes in the same manner of prose that wraps you up and puts such a picture in your head you can almost reach out and touch it while making you really think about your life, particularly the way you eat.

I find myself approaching the book, one chapter at a time, with a yearning building up from deep within. I often read before bed and, with this book, I seem to be opening the door to a pleasant set of dreams. This morning I woke still aware. I’ve been down this path before. “Ten years ago,” I found myself thinking. Life was full of so many things ten years ago, both wonderful (my kids, returning to Kansas) and horrible (losing my mom, my grandmother)

I believe that life/time moves in circles. There are elements that we revisit time after time, sometimes from different angles and vantages. But the themes that run through your life, the things that are really important, don’t ever seem to completely go away, even when you think you’ve walked away from them intentionally.

I pulled out the photo books this morning and this is what I found.


Our first flock of laying hens (1999).


Turkeys (and Munchkin Baby #2).


My farmer boy (it was his enthusiasm for all this stuff that got us started).


Some variety of Popcorn in the front, I think it was Russian blue corn in the back.


One of my all-time favorite pictures of Hubby and Munchkin #2.


Some of you may remember that I’ve opted out of gardening many, many times… but aren’t these beautiful beans? P.S. As a non-gardener, I have two tomatoes in buckets this summer, one potato plant, and pumpkins growing from last year’s compost. I’ve actually got the heirloom catalogs bookmarked on my computer now… dreaming of next year.


A view of the harvest (1999).


Hubby and the girls with a turkey.

I’d almost forgotten this part of it. I think I’d some how put all the emotions and turmoil of the time into one package and perhaps I‘ve forgotten to sort out what was good from what was bad. Now I find this path before me again, at least in the sense of possibility.


Eggs, eggs, eggs… I do miss those eggs. I think this was a picture showing off that really tall egg in the back center row. It was a double-yolker!


Fall piggies. We also raised lambs, one steer, and bucket calves our first few years back in Kansas.

I don’t imagine Animal, Vegetable, Miracle will inspire every person to return to their farming roots, but it will give every person a lot to think about. Every meal you eat has an impact; the environment, your body, the kind of life you choose to live.

2007 Kansas Farmers’ Markets Directory
Kansas Pastured Products Directory
Local Harvest - Kansas