So many new rules in farming. You produce what can get you the most money. For most farmers that is tobacco. Many people don't care about tobacco farmers saying all they are causing are problems. When in face this tobacco is providing homes, education, clothes and paid bills. Barbara Kingsolver does say that most tobacco farmers wish they could grow something else! Unfortunately that haven't found an alternate high-value crop. Some alternatives have been given such as organic vegetables and sustainable lumber.
Did you know that small farms are actually better than big ones? Well they are! They bring in more money than the big farms!
At home on the farm you can't get everything you want. There are seasons! If you miss the perfect day to collect food, you miss it for the whole year! Mushroom hunters (Molly Mooch hunters) know the perfect times. A Molly Mooch is a morel, which means mushroom. Mushrooms have a huge variety but if you don't collect them at the right time they are gone! But what makes it even more difficult is that mushrooms are extremely hard to find, but this also makes it more fun!
Planting is the same story as collecting. You have to plant at the right time or they don't harvest as well. Most people can't stand to eat fruits and vegetables that don't look plump or juicy; but Kingsolver's family eats them whenever they can.
Small town, small postal service. Strange packages everyday (to city folk)! Those who live on farms are used to chicks being delivered by mail, like those of Lily's. Lily (Kingsolver's daughter) gets chicks to start an egg business. As time goes Lily wants a horse, and Kingsolver says if she pays for half. Now this little girl takes her motherly instinct and goes off calculating how much chicken meat would pay for. As she calculates and adjusts she decides that she will only kill the "mean" ones and keep the rest for eggs. Lily is definitely getting a horse soon.
Kingsolver's family knows that food is food. They make sure that their turkeys and chickens are raised on a farm where they can mate themselves. Also there is variety on these farms; not just the butterball turkeys. But while they get farm raised meat, they themselves raise the meat then let someone else do the killing. They are dedicated to not eating industrial food.
Most of us are raised to give flowers on Mother's Day and to say thank you for gifts. Not this town! They give tomato plants and don't say thank you. Saying thank you is a curse on the plant to wither up and die...odd.
So many varieties of tomatoes, but each is grown with a purpose. Each plant has its own timing of harvesting and planting, and all this work begins on....Mother's Day! The never ending labor of parenting...for plants!
Hard work is a necessity in farming, without it you won't eat. During all this hard work in May is Kingsolver's birthday. Instead of the traditional store bought food everything is home grown and home made! Yum! The caterer helps her out in getting the food together. Kingsolver has nothing for a theme so the caterer calls farmers from all around asking what they have. Soon enough all the food comes in and it turns out to be terrific! Friends and family come from near and far to celebrate her birthday and Kingsolver is extremely happy for all the help with food and planning and her gifts (plants for her garden). She said thank you for everything BUT the plants.
The dead zones of farming: midwinter and June. These times are when the garden is quiet; no plant in sight. Of course this doesn't mean there is no work to do. The family still tends to the farm keeping it healthy. The is rarely any chance of a farm family leaving for vacation though, but they do manage to do this between May and September harvest. Once everything is packed Kingsolver's family plan to leave for a week and a half,but the day before they leave cherries start falling from the tree. They collect the delicious red fruit the whole day.
Kentucky has a variety of things to grow and sell, like plants, shrimp, beef, poultry, racehorses, anything! Even with all this variety though farms still die. America is just more interested in lower prices than healthier foods. This keeps the farms from earning all they can. While industrial agriculture can promote its food in a super sized scale, farms can't promote unless its via word of mouth. But the farmers can communicate how much healthier and better their food is, and how it benefits them and their neighborhood. Eventually the farms will win.
While on their vacation Kingsolver does meet Amy a local farmer up north. She grows her food in a greenhouse and they plants are beautiful. Amy could sell the food for however much she wanted but consumers know her personally and she refuses to take advantage of them. She is part of the community. This is what locally grown means. It is a community who knows each on first name basis, who see each other every week, who are friendly and know where there food is coming from. "Local is farmers growing trust."
Reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has really opened my eyes about locally grown food. It makes me want to move to a farm and grow my own food! But I know this would be extremely difficult; so far I will stick to my farmer's market!
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