Year of Plenty: One Suburban Family. . .in Pursuit of Christian Living

The Goodwin family grew in many respects over the course of a year of learning to take their food and its sources seriously.Growing much of their own food ( including chickens) was a new way of life that led to growing a garden and getting acquainted with farmers and orchardists of the area. Starting a community farmer's market, brought many others on board. The family drew closer as they adhered to their year's plan to live simply. The Thailand trip seemed extraneous but interesting. The author intersperses the chapters with meditations, homilies, humor, and wisdom, and overall the book was a delightful read.

I liked the book, when I was all done, including appendices (I may have liked them the best). But I found some sections a little plodding. I am eager to discuss with my book club. I do really appreciate his integration of spiritual and material, of seeing our faith and theology connected to the everyday of life and consumption. Want to think more about how this plays out in my everyday.

I read this story and enjoyed the journey that the writer took in buying only local products for a year.They came up against problems that I didn't even consider could happen.I think more people should try to do experiments such as these.We need to take a bigger look at how we are affecting our environment on a personal level every day.

Craig Goodwin gives us an honest and often funny perspective of learning to live with "less is more".It should be a required bible study for all Christian faiths. The author just doesn't theorize about makinga difference, he does it. Without being too preachy he honestly brings to light the lack of involvement ofChristian Churches when it comes to environmental issues. Environmental issues are food issues.We are all in this together and he clearly connects the dots for us.Highly recommended not only to read but to discuss, reflect and put into practice.

While I am enjoying reading of this exercise that the Goodwin family undertook, it occurs to me that the Proverbs 31 woman not only ate food she grew herself, but also brought her food from "afar". Don't think eating local is necessarily a biblical directive. Doubt that woman in Proverbs knew who produced the (probably) spices she purchased down at the dock. When I came to this conclusion, the book lost something. Maybe something to look into...but, really, why???

This is a very interesting book on not living wastefully. Craig and his wife work to live by four simple rules: reuse, repair, make your own or buy locally when possible. The book is very well written, easy to read, and raises question is it better to purchase food produced locally or to purchase food produced by, supposedly, more economical large scale producers. Craig also demonstrates how living this way enhanced his Christian practice.

A lot of fun and presents many great growth opportunities. I thought it might dig a bit deeper, but maybe I'll have to plow through it again to be sure I've harvested all I could.

Easy and hard to read at the same time. Worth the time to learn about the concept of eating local food, growing one's own food, and the unusual effort of finding out about the "local" coffee.