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37th out of 469 books
—
976 voters
Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally
Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; e...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
April 24th 2007
by Harmony
(first published March 12th 2007)
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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...more
I have been wanting to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver but it wasn't available at the library yet. This one was. Its the same basic idea, the authors, residents of Vancouver, decide that for one year they will attempt to only eat food grown within a one hundred mile radius of their home. A wonderful idea in theory because the reality is each ingredient we eat travels an average of 1500 miles which is absolutely ridiculous.
It is probably not realistic for most of us to go c...more
It is probably not realistic for most of us to go c...more
I chose to give this book the rarely (by me) proffered five stars, not because of the brilliance of the writing itself, but because this couple's story was a fine example of ethical frustration, of choosing mindful living while surrounded by overwhelming and seemingly unchangeable insanity. Because they put it out there to enlighten, inspire, and hopefully, make us pause as we contemplate their motivations and the notable efforts of others such as Michael Pollan, Jamie Oliver, Deborah Madison......more
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 othe...more
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 i...more
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 li...more
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 li...more
Oct 29, 2007
Chessa
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or The Omnivore's Dilemma
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 reall...more
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 reall...more
The 2008 Lake Forest Park Reads book. A memoir of a couple, two writers, who challenges themselves to only buy food grown within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, BC, and their up north lean-to cabin in the middle of nowwhere. They rotate writing chapters. They get real emotional over potatoes, beets, potatoes, tomatoes, more potatoes, onions, etc and have a funny, icky quest for wheat or anything that can be ground for flour. Data is shared from govt agencies, historians, and whole foo...more
A quick, interesting read about a couple in Vancouver, BC that decide to spend a year eating only foods from within a 100 mile of their home. The average food item travels 1500 miles from where it's grown to where it's eaten. Besides the obvious wastefulness of this system they also discover a community of farms, a connection to the seasons and a far more varied diet than most of us enjoy. It's not preachy or holier than though. The reader learns along with them. It's definitely food for thought...more
Stayed up last nite to finish my book from the library. It is due today and has about a billion holds on it so I have to return it. Plenty by Smith and MacKinnon. It was the people who started the whole 100 mile diet thing. They did it on a whim and it became a tidal wave. It was enjoyable to read.. even if some of the statistics make me miserable. I like how they really decided to go with the whole plan.. and even though they gave themselves plenty of contingency plans (say if invited to a hous...more
One year, a couple was inspired to try to eat locally for a year. They defined locally based on their geographic surroundings and ended up drawing a boundary that allowed them to eat food withing 100 miles of their home in Vancouver, BC.
This book is the story of the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned. A year of trying to eat only locally grown and produced foods was difficult. Some of these difficulties were due to their geographic location; the area around Vancouver is just not...more
This book is the story of the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned. A year of trying to eat only locally grown and produced foods was difficult. Some of these difficulties were due to their geographic location; the area around Vancouver is just not...more
Oh my, the dreaded one-star review. I must say, I went into this book with high hopes and ended up quite disappointed. It seems like a book I would love - a couple around my age living in Vancouver and trying to spend one year living on only food that was grown or raised within 100 miles of their home. In our society these days, this is no easy task. They have predictable adventures trying to find difficult to locate foods (flour, salt, anything but potatoes in the winter, etc) but in the end th...more
What I liked about this book: I feel like both of the authors, but particularly Alisa, were able to capture the sense of wonder that I have felt about discovering where food comes from and feeling so much closer to it when you know the source. I was never particularly interested in food or where it came from until my husband became a farmer, but now that I regularly (and for some meals exclusively) eat food came from a farm 20 miles away and was picked that very afternoon by Kurt's own hands, ea...more
"One man, one woman and a raucous year of eating locally" is the tagline for this book. I'm not sure if I'd describe it as raucous... tumultuous maybe, but raucous, no.
The book follows Alisa & James as they try to eat within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver, Canada. Their endeavour sees them eat wheat complete with mouse droppings, stink their house out in an effort to make sauerkrat and nearly come to blows over canning of tomatoes.
I enjoyed the book a lot and thought it gave a very rea...more
The book follows Alisa & James as they try to eat within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver, Canada. Their endeavour sees them eat wheat complete with mouse droppings, stink their house out in an effort to make sauerkrat and nearly come to blows over canning of tomatoes.
I enjoyed the book a lot and thought it gave a very rea...more
This is our "One Book, One Community" choice for 2008. I purchased this book because of that and then put off reading it because I thought it would be a boring "this is what we did to save the environment" book. I was wrong! I really enjoyed this book. It made me think and definitely made me more aware of choices that we make in our lives, which I never considered as having an impact on our environment. Could I go so far as to live this way, even for one year? NO! Again, I thoroughly enjoyed the...more
Admittedly, I am plowing through books centered on concientious eating so my opinion is highly relative. "Plenty" isn't the worst of them, but it wouldn't be high on my recommended reading list.
The negative: In general I found the writing styles of both authors bland. Never once did I really care about the personal elements of their one-year journey eating local foods. At times their eating philosophy seems extreme just for the sake of being extreme. They go most of the year without wheat, but...more
The negative: In general I found the writing styles of both authors bland. Never once did I really care about the personal elements of their one-year journey eating local foods. At times their eating philosophy seems extreme just for the sake of being extreme. They go most of the year without wheat, but...more
Interesting book about a couple from Vancouver, Canada who spend a year eating only food that comes from within 100 miles of their home. That includes ALL food - flour, cooking oil, everything. No coffee?! No chocolate?! Eeeeeeeek!! I doubt I would ever try the 100 mile diet, but I do strive to think more about the what and where it comes from, in my diet. Note "strive", not necessarily achieve at all times! Interesting observation from book - we now spend more time driving to the supermarket, p...more
It's odd reading this immediately after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Kingsolver is a professional author, and so she knows how to turn a good tale, but in contrast she also wrote her novel without any real details into the life of a 100 mile diet.
This book is the opposite. Not only do the two of them document the trials of finding local food, but the stress of doing so. I feel that there may have been a bit to much lean on the relationship issues that the two of them had, but undoubtedly...more
This book is the opposite. Not only do the two of them document the trials of finding local food, but the stress of doing so. I feel that there may have been a bit to much lean on the relationship issues that the two of them had, but undoubtedly...more
lately i have been into reading books where people do weird personal experiments for a year & document them. good thing there is absolutely no shortage of such books, what with publishing companies basically just trawling the blogosphere & offering book deals to anyone who can be edited to appear functionally literate. almost none of these books are really all that great, but i guess i don't read them expecting great literature. i am just attracted to the idea of people subjecting themse...more
This book was good, but not as good as Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle A Year of Food Life, which unfortunately for Smith I had read first.
The book fails due to a compromise of two opposing styles; the epistolary style of the blog that precedes the book, and the cohesive narrative needed for a full-length book. Smith does not do a great job at this merger, and it's further hurt by the changing in perspective between her and her partner.
Instead of a narrative, the book reads more...more
The book fails due to a compromise of two opposing styles; the epistolary style of the blog that precedes the book, and the cohesive narrative needed for a full-length book. Smith does not do a great job at this merger, and it's further hurt by the changing in perspective between her and her partner.
Instead of a narrative, the book reads more...more
This book was a surprise. I bought it a couple of years ago in a local-eating-will-save-the-world-so-i-must-read-all-i-can book spree, and it's sat on my shelf since then.
I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," and she mentions the book in hers, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's relatively short, and the chapters, like Kingsolver's, are divided by month. I found this book much more appealing than "A,V,M," though, as it's not just about eating locally and doesn't p...more
I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," and she mentions the book in hers, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's relatively short, and the chapters, like Kingsolver's, are divided by month. I found this book much more appealing than "A,V,M," though, as it's not just about eating locally and doesn't p...more
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I love these "I did this for a year!" books, because they allow me to peek inside someone else's attempt at doing something I'd like to do but am too scared of doing. The authors set out to eat only what they could obtain from within 100 miles of home. After wanting to throw potatoes out the window from eating so many and madly missing their wheat products, they eventually came to understand the seasons, the land around them, and the cycles of life that bring us our food, better. This knowledge,...more
Some parts of this book were great: learning about the agriculture of the Northwest and the people who are devoted to keeping it going strong as well as the great (and not so great) meals that this couple came up with because they were forced to think differently.
Other parts languished, perhaps because it seems like I've heard it all a million times before: eat locally, food travels 1500 miles or more to get to your plate, we're running out of resources, etc. Somehow it seemed a little trite com...more
Other parts languished, perhaps because it seems like I've heard it all a million times before: eat locally, food travels 1500 miles or more to get to your plate, we're running out of resources, etc. Somehow it seemed a little trite com...more
I was really torn between 4 and 5 stars on this book. I found it by turns inspiring, amusing, honest and frustrating. I felt that the idea of a eating within 100 miles of their home was a worthy one, but I honestly wondered how much of an impact it had when they were driving all over the place to search for "local" ingredients. I understand the problems of modern life, but the 100 miles seemed arbitrary - a nice even number not too close to home. I was sometimes jolted by the switching between t...more
The book made me itch to get out in the garden that I never planted after Kingsolver's book on the same experiment gave me the same desire at the beginning of the year. Having read Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Mineral already, much of the environmental backstory was already familiar to me. But since the authors live in Vancouver, BC and share many other demographic features with me, I could identify much more closely with their story. I recognized many of their landmarks, as well as weather con...more
This is one of several books I've read already that start out with a similar mission: the author sets out on an experimental journey (usually of one year), vowing to eat only foods that come from a certain radius of their home. In other words, to plunge headfirst into the locavore movement to see if it is a feasible goal. Of those that I've read (including my beloved Animal, Vegetable, Miracle), each has its own flavor and personality to add to the genre.
Plenty is definitely worth reading. Writ...more
Plenty is definitely worth reading. Writ...more
Eating locally produced/grown foods has long been an interest of mine going back to establishing a community garden in the 1980's in our neighborhood in Chicago.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the progression of the eating-locally ideas in the concept of eating within the 100-mile radius of home, the distance being tied to the Vancouver, B.C., location of the writers' home, not a blanket recommendation for every locale.
Both authors are journalists and handled their subject with candor and hu...more
I was pleasantly surprised to see the progression of the eating-locally ideas in the concept of eating within the 100-mile radius of home, the distance being tied to the Vancouver, B.C., location of the writers' home, not a blanket recommendation for every locale.
Both authors are journalists and handled their subject with candor and hu...more
Dec 01, 2009
Jeffrey
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
own,
reference-shelf
I was originally inspired to search out this book after watching an episode on television about a community trying a social experiment based off of the experiences of the authors in this book. It was only an hour show, but it struck a cord with me, so we searched out the book. The topic of raising and growing our own food has been an on again off again topic between my wife and I for a couple of years now, with us gradually taking more and more steps along that path. This book has convinced me t...more
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle actually kind of changed my life, and remains one of my favorite books in the world, in addition to being a really powerful piece of literature, in my opinion. Plenty doesn't quite hit that mark, but I really enjoyed it. Given that I live in their 100 mile radius, I was hanging on every word, trying to make notes of every place I must try to visit and buy glorious food from! I really liked how they made local eating accessible to the average Apartment Joe, whereas AVM...more
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| I finished the book | 2 | 21 | Jul 29, 2008 08:57pm |
The book Plenty has different subtitles in hardcover and paperback and the Canadian edition was called The 100-Mile Diet.
Alisa Smith, a Vancouver-based freelance writer who has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, has been published in Outside, Explore, Canadian Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Utne, and many other periodicals. The books Way Out There and Liberalized feature her work.
More about Alisa Smith...
Alisa Smith, a Vancouver-based freelance writer who has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, has been published in Outside, Explore, Canadian Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Utne, and many other periodicals. The books Way Out There and Liberalized feature her work.
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Aug 17, 2008 12:36pm
I hope Spencer is kidding. :S
There is an...more
Nov 23, 2008 03:41pm