Barbara Kingsolver has turned out another page-turner on the plant and animal world.  The premise of the book is that the Kingsolver family sources all of its food from the Virginia county where their farm is located.  It's beautifully written, even evocative.  And just try to put it down before you find out what happens to the turkeys' reproduction efforts!

It is striking to a food addictionist to see a broad river of highly refined, non-local substances flow through the household's otherwise bucolic food supply.  The family of 3.5 (one daughter leaves for college in the middle of the year) buys 300 lbs of flour for home-made bread and pizza, as well as an unspecified amount of coffee and wine.  The result is that the family does not lose any weight during the year in spite of the hard labor of growing, harvesting, and storing a year's worth of food.  So much for the argument that exercise can cure weight problems.  Ms. Kingsolver also reports having the kind of temper melt-downs that I had when I was using flour, caffeine, and alcohol to (mis)manage my moods.  From my experience as a consultant in the field of food addiction, weight problems and temper melt-downs disappear when refined foods are removed from the diet.  It's a mind-blowing blessing.

I wish Ms. Kingsolver would take her family off of these refined substances and write another exquisite cliff hanger about her experience.