“It's interesting that penny-pinching is an accepted defense for toxic food habits, when frugality so rarely rules other consumer domains. The majority of Americans buy bottled drinking water, for example, even though water runs from the faucets at home for a fraction of the cost, and government quality standards are stricter for tap water than for bottled. At any income level, we can be relied upon for categorically unnecessary purchases: portable-earplug music instead of the radio; extra-fast Internet for leisure use; heavy vehicles to transport light loads; name-brand clothing instead of plainer gear. "Economizing," as applied to clothing, generally means looking for discount name brands instead of wearing last year's clothes again. The dread of rearing unfashionable children is understandable. But as a priority, "makes me look cool" has passed up "keeps arteries functional" and left the kids huffing and puffing (fashionably) in the dust.”
― Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
― Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
“Maybe most important, farm food itself is totally different from what most people now think of as food: none of those colorful boxed and bagged products, precut, parboiled, ready to eat, and engineered to appeal to our basest desires. We were selling the opposite: naked, unprocessed food, two steps from the dirt.”
― The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love
― The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love
“One person's picture postcard is someone else's normal.”
― Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
― Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
“A farm is a manipulative creature. There is no such thing as finished. Work comes in a stream and has no end. There are only the things that must be done now and things that can be done later. The threat the farm has got on you, the one that keeps you running from can until can't, is this: do it now, or some living thing will wilt or suffer or die. Its blackmail, really.”
― The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love
― The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love
“Grow it right, and you feel insanely rich, no matter what you own.”
― The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love
― The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love
Karyn’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Karyn’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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