A review by dreesreads
The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating by J.B. MacKinnon, Alisa Smith
3.0
This book is an entertaining and fast read about a couple who decide to spend a year eating a 100-mile diet in Vancouver, BC.
Co-authored in alternating chapters, the book turns out to be largely a series of anecdotes about hunting for 100-mile wheat, the dearth of local seafood despite being on the ocean, a potato-and-kale diet, rotting onions, local characters, and home canning. It could have been so much more, as they finally find local wheat and learn that wheat had been a common crop in the area. And as they bemoan the loss of the local fisheries, as they learn about the huge variety of fruits and vegetables that grow incredibly well in their area--but are not grown on any commercial scale any longer.
But rather than preach to the choir, they stick with the anecdotes and hint at the larger issues.
Co-authored in alternating chapters, the book turns out to be largely a series of anecdotes about hunting for 100-mile wheat, the dearth of local seafood despite being on the ocean, a potato-and-kale diet, rotting onions, local characters, and home canning. It could have been so much more, as they finally find local wheat and learn that wheat had been a common crop in the area. And as they bemoan the loss of the local fisheries, as they learn about the huge variety of fruits and vegetables that grow incredibly well in their area--but are not grown on any commercial scale any longer.
But rather than preach to the choir, they stick with the anecdotes and hint at the larger issues.