Animal Vegetable Miracle recipe

I've finished the audio book of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Mirace: A Year of Food Life" for tomorrow's KAXE bookclub. This book really got me thinking about where my food comes from. As we've heard Maggie's Local Food segments on KAXE, I've been inspired to incorporate more local foods into my diet - it's not that much yet (especially this time of year) but I do get milk, butter, potatoes, cheese, wild rice, berries, honey, venison, beef and maple syrup locally.

How about you?

I checked out the recipe section of Animal Vegetable Miracle and found one I want to try this summer, assuming the blackberry crop will be better than last year's.

BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE
2-3 apples, chopped
2 pints blackberries
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 large handful of basil leaves, chopped
¼ cup honey – or more, depending on tartness of your berries

Preheat oven to 400. Combine the above in an oven-proof casserole dish, mix and set aside.

5 tbsp flour
3 heaping tbsp brown sugar
1 stick cold butter

Cut butter into flour and sugar, then rub with your fingers to make a chunky, crumbly mixture (not uniform). Sprinkle it over the top of the fruit, bake 30 minutes until golden and bubbly.

Hope you can make it to the bookclub meeting - it's at 4pm on Tuesday March 11th.

Check out Maggie's latest post on the Morning Show blog!

We're talking Locavores next Tuesday!

Locavore is defined as:

Someone whose diet consists of food grown or produced within an area most commonly bound by a 100-mile radius of their home. Locavores usually shun large supermarket chains, opting for farmer's markets and local gardens instead. It is also a current trend for many high-end restaurants as well.

This word was just declared Oxford American Dictionary's 2007 Word of the Year. It was coined in 2005 by a group of four women from San Francisco. It's also sometimes spelled localvores.

Is Locavore/Localvore a word you are familiar with?

If you are reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" like I am, it's a word/concept I'm coming to understand more and more. We're getting together next Tuesday, 3/11 at 4pm to talk books and food. Everyone is invited to join us - whether or notyou've read the book - and talk about the concept of eating locally -specifically how to eat locally in Northern Minnesota. Maggie Montgomery will be on hand totalk about how she has been eating locally since last July.

Not only am I considering a more extensive garden this year, making cheese
has actually crossed my mind after reading the book! Kingsolver writes about the New England Cheesemaking Company where she learned to make homemade mozzarella and other cheeses. Have you ever made cheese? Let us know! What local food do you eat?

KAXE's Next Bookclub meeting - Local Food

It's going to be on Tuesday March 11th at 4pm at the 91.7fm KAXE studios. We're located on the Mississippi River, next to the Grand Rapids Library at 260 NE 2nd Street.

I'm really excited about our next bookclub choice because

a) Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors

b) food is involved

We're reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver, along with her husband Steven Hopp and daughter Camille Kingsolver. It's their story of a move from Tucson, Arizona to rural Appalachia. They are not just moving; they are rehauling their life and changing where they get their food from.

"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

Not only are we reading this book (or listening to it as I am), our very own Maggie Montgomery will join us for her perspective on what it is like to eat locally in Northern Minnesota. And, we'll gather together, 'round the KAXE fireplace with local food to share.

Join us on Tuesday March 11th at 4pm at KAXE!

Have you already read this book? What do you think?