Sunday, March 9, 2008

ear worms

.. that's what the author of this is your brain on music calls those song snippets that get stuck in your head (most often, they're unwelcome). right now, my ear worm is video killed the radio star because, for some odd reason, that's the song that was playing in trader joe's while i was grocery shopping this afternoon.

speaking of food (who doesn't love food?), i've been meaning to write about my favorite author, barbara kingsolver. well, she's not really food, but here's the part to do with eating - her newest book (well, i guess it's been out since may or so) is called animal, vegetable, mineral, and it's about her family's decision to move from their home in arizona to a farm in virginia, where they ate all their food locally. meaning that what they didn't raise themselves, they bought at local farmer's markets. well, they allowed themselves exceptions - most notably for me coffee and tea. those are 2 things i wouldn't be able to live without, and i guess they decided that also.

i saw barbara kingsolver speak in may at town hall and it was amazing because 1) she is my favorite author and i wrote a huge thesis about her books when i was in college and 2) her story is genuinely interesting. she doesn't pretend that trying to eat local is always an easy thing, but she does write about why she thinks it is important for the environment, for your health, and for ethical reasons. plus, her writing is really funny; there is a hilarious chapter about the mating habits of turkeys.

the combination of seeing her speak and then going to hear al gore speak about global warming inspired me to try to eat as many local things as possible. that's much easier to do in the summer, of course, but even in the winter, i'd say that 80-90 percent of the produce i buy is locally grown. every saturday, i go to the unversity district farmer's market (it's open year-round) and i have even started to try some things this winter (like kale and my new favorite food, brussels sprouts) that i never would have touched before.

No comments: