Read 'N' Seed 5: Fourth Quarter and Final Review of Plenty - Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet

1.  For my final section of Plenty, I read the months of December, January, and February; also included in this section was the Epilogue.  This covered pages 193-264.

2. The main topics addressed in this section were eating locally during the winter months.  And how they were inspiring to so many other people to try this for themselves.  They also discussed the importance of getting proper nutrients in their diet.

3.  The most significant things I learned about, or rather the most intersting, was that they spent nearly an entire chapter talking about Minnesota!  James and Alisa compared eating locally in the Pacific Northwest easy to eating locally in lands of harsh winters, like Mahnomen, Minnesota.  James and Alisa had gone to visit the White Earth Tribal and Community College there because they had an experiment going to eat locally for a year as well.  Being it was so similar to their own experience, James and Alisa looked to Sunny, Steve, and Stephanie (the ones who started this project in Mahnomen), for advice and information.  The local food experiment in Mahnomen allowed a 250 mile radius.  The biggest pointer they took away from the experience, was that they people in Mahnomen began their journey in September versus James and Alisa who started in March.  Since they began in fall, it allowed them to prepare all summer by collecting foods and canning and preserving them to last throughout the winter.  From Minnesota they took away many lessons of how to actually live off the land.  They believed that those in Minnesota truly make the impossible, possible.  Also significant in this section, is that they learned that they actually enjoy their 100 Mile Diet.  Making certain treks to find the unique food to add to their collection had been fun adventures and well worth it.  I did not find any specific terms within this section that I needed to look up.

4.  This section greatly affects society in the sense that IT IS POSSIBLE to successfully live by eating locally.  James and Alisa did not starve, they acquired proper nutrients daily, and an enticing factor for most Americans, they lost weight (granted this was not a goal of theirs at all, it just happened).  The final chapter was a bit of a reflection on their journey.  As February neared its ending, they realized they still had an abudance of canned and frozen foods.  Even though they had much anticipated the return of spring, they discovered that they could still survive the winter months.  James and Alisa are an inspiration to society.  They did not create this brand new diet or magically come up with the idea to eat locally, in fact this is something that had been done for centuries.  So why in the last 50 years or so have we resorted to eating everything from the other side of the world?  We need to go back to what are great-grandparents and before ate and how they did it.  It is possible, now it just takes a more conscious decision to actually do it.

5.  Basically, a brief overview of the book includes the idea to eat locally for a year within a 100 mile radius.  This took place March-February in British Columbia.  The book discusses the journey of James and Alisa as they discover what foods are grown locally, when they are in season, and how to retrieve them.  It shows the ups and downs, and that sometimes the best things in life are not easy.  They developed great relationships with local farmers and know exactly where their food is coming from and who raised it.  They enjoyed the new creations they had discovered over the year.  And Alisa finally learned to cook things that required actually cooking.  Overall, they felt the year was a success.  The ending shows that this is truly a lifestyle change.  It is not just something they did for a year and quit, on day 366 they could eat whatever they wanted, and their choice for lunch: potatoes.  It became part of who they were, they enjoyed eating locally.  This book should inspire all to take the chance of eating locally.

6. The three most significant things I have learned are 

• It is possible.  The section talking about Mahnomen, Minnesota really hit home for me.  Even through reading this, I was like well it works for them but there is no way it would work in MN.  To my surprise, it can be done, and people are doing it. 
• You feel better when you know where your food is coming from.  This incorporates both mentally and physically.  James and Alisa had more energy and truly felt that they got more enjoyment out of life from this experience.  And mentally felt better because they knew where there food was coming from, how it was raised, and that they were helping their local economy.  All while reducing their ecological footprint on the Earth.
• Try, try again.  Be persistent with what you want.  They spent lots of time looking for different fruits, vegetables, grains, etc.  Sometimes things did not always work out in their favor, but eventually something better would come along.  Do not let obstacles get in your way, learn to overcome them and move on.  Understanding how to work through a problem and discovering a successful solution shows you much more about yourself than if it had just been "easy" the first time around.

7. This book really shows me that with time, effort, and determination you can accomplish anything.  Even though it was a lot of work, and sometimes James and Alisa did not deem it worthy, they took great pride in what they were doing.  We all say we want to eat "healthy" and we want to have a lesser effect on the Earth, so why not take advantage of something that does both?  My biggest deterrent from attempting this is money and time.  I do not have a large income to be getting specific foods, often my grocery list comes from whatever I have coupons for.  I think I will try to incorporate a few things at a time that are local with the intention of eventually being all.  The second component that makes this difficult for me is time.  James and Alisa spent a lot of time driving to different places to pick up foods and researching their locations.  As well as time spent canning, peeling, preparing, and storing foods so they would last for months.  I think it is amazing that they were able to accomplish so much.  It is important to hear about these things because it is inspiration to others all around the world.  I had previously mentioned the snowball effect of telling others about this.  I think that is why this is so important: getting the word out that it is possible to eat locally, and it provides examples of steps to take for how to be successful.

8.  I would definitely recommend this book to others.  The great thing about my book is that granted I read it for educational purposes, I probably would have read it anyways.  I was very interested in the storyline.  Overall, this book was everything I expected it to be.  It is very descriptive and really allows you to understand what you need to go through to eat locally.