animal vegetable miracle

As a kid, I spent countless hours, days, weeks, months - heck, even years - thinking of nothing but baseball. With 2 brothers and 3 step-brothers in my family hanging around each summer, it was easy to get a game going any time, and each night was spent in front of the TV, watching our beloved Yankees (I'm from New York) attempt to destroy the competition. My brothers and I developed special cheers for Don Mattingly, Ricky Henderson, Dave Righetti, and the rest of the team. When I moved to Minnesota, I helped my family adjust to the idea by telling them that Dave Winfield was born in St. Paul.

I had the great pleasure to meet with Amanda Simpson, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Residence Manager, and Brian McClung, Governor Pawlenty’s Director of Communications, last week. Over the course of an hour, our far-reaching conversation centered on the role of local food at the Residence, also (briefly) touching on Minnesota food policy and what’s to come. (I even got a tour of the garden.) Amanda and Brian were refreshingly candid, and I was glad to meet them and see their work first-hand.

The weeks go so fast! I've barely finished last week's box of goodies from Harmony Valley Farm's CSA, and it's Thursday again! To be honest, I do occasionally get a small sense of panic. I don't want to waste any of the amazing foods I'm getting, especially when I consider the work our local farmers have done to produce all this sustainable, organic food - and get it to the city.

It was just over 6 weeks ago when I joined my first CSA, bought Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and started hunting down restaurants serving local, sustainable foods.

I'm still near the start of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, and really liking it. It's my first Kingsolver book, so I don't have strong feelings about the author either way (most people I know who've read her books do), but I'm really enjoying the way she describes her family moving east to become closer to the land and, more specifically, to the food they eat.