The Locavore’s Bookshelf: In Defense of Food

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto is Michael Pollan’s follow-up to his immensely popular and influential book,The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which documented his own personal journey as he discovered the ins and outs of various food systems in the United States, including corporate agriculture, confined animal feeding operations, small pasture-based livestock farms, foraging and hunting.
I […]

Book Review: The Art of Simple Food

Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food is not just a cookbook.
It is also a primer of essential culinary techniques, with basic recipes for the neophyte to memorize and expand upon creatively.
It is also a guide to building up a pantry with basic items which will allow one to cook good, simple food from […]

The Locavore’s Bookshelf: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite writers.
Her prose is graceful, eloquent and spare; she is the master of poetic description punctuated with the occasional baldly-stated observation of ugly, yet undeniable truths.
With her training and background in evolutionary biology, Kingsolver cannot help but report on both the incredible beauty the natural world offers […]

The Locavore’s Bookshelf: Pasture Perfect

Jo Robinson is the driving force behind the website www.eatwild.com, a clearinghouse for information on the health benefits of pasture-based farming which includes a comprehensive, state-by-state directory of sources for pasture-raised meats, eggs and dairy products.
For those who are not net saavy, she also happened to write this concise book, Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching […]

The Locavore’s Bookshelf: Real Food

Reading Nina Planck’s Real Food: What to Eat and Why was an exercise in both elation and frustration.
On the one hand, I was thrilled to read my own intuitive (and educated) trust in whole, natural foods ably articulated by a facile writer who makes a good case that a lot of conventional nutritional wisdom is […]