Well, we are spending a lot of time these nights nursing. Ward is cutting a bazillion teeth all at once. That means I've had some time for reading. My sister-in-law found this book at one of the Portland libraries and brought it with her to Michigan this past summer. I skimmed it there and gleaned enough to know I wanted to read more. Upon returning home, I checked with our library and they did not own a copy. So I waited. Eventually they got copies and I had to get on a waiting list. But finally, it is my turn. It should be yours next. This is a really inspiring read.
The back cover has a little to-do list and it reads:
Hang out laundry
Quit job
Can tomato sauce
Weed garden
Drain lifeblood from multinational corporations
Radical indeed. The subtitle is "Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture". It hits all the main points in the importance of creating local food systems but goes further than other books I've read in describing how the public has really been hoodwinked into becoming consumers rather than producers.
As I'm reading I'm finding myself really questioning a lot of my own beliefs about education, employment, financial security and what life skills really matter. Now, I already feel that big picture, a lot of my life choices in the past 10 years don't make a lot of sense to the mainstream thinker. I think it says something that this read is challenging some of my assumptions.
The author, Shannon Hayes, holds a Ph.D. from Cornell and is working with her extended (and immediate) family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm . For those of you who need a bit more of a teaser to quirk your interest, she was interviewed this week on NPR's The Story which you can listen to here:
http://thestory.org/archive/The_Story_010311_Full_Story.mp3/view.
If you read it, let me know what you think!
