Coming Home to Eat by Gary Paul Nabhan
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Gary Paul Nabhan’s book about his year long local eating experiment gives readers good insight into Nabhan’s personal life, but surprisingly little information about his local eating foray. For one year, Nabhan plans to prepare 80% of his meals using foods grown within a few hundred miles of his Arizona home. This is certainly a noble act, but I found myself continuously asking how he actually did it. Sure, he tells of gathering traditional food from a local desert, slaughtering turkeys he raised and eating peaches from his own tree. But we’re talking about a thousand or so meals, which would require a lot more local food than he discusses. This omission left a lot to be desired for me.
Aside from information about Nabhan’s wife and other local eating acquaintances, he briefly discusses food politics. Here the reader encounters some interesting information, but is still left thirsting for more.
Nabhan has good intentions, however the book is neither informative nor inspiring enough to be compared to other tales of local eating, such as Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.
