I’ve recently had the pleasure of reading Robin Mather’s The Feast Nearby: How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering, and eating locally (all on $40 a week.) Though losing her job (not just a job but a career) and burying a marriage may have been the impetus for moving to the countryside of Michigan and changing her way of life, the focus of the book is on the healing work provided by caring for animals, foraging, preserving and bartering. Each vignette draws the reader along on her adventures, inspiring and informing as we go.
Ms. Mather tackles a subject that I and many others are deeply concerned with these days – how does one eat healthfully on a small budget? She graciously shows us how to eat not only healthfully but deliciously by growing some of our own foods, purchasing locally, bartering what we have for what we need, foraging for the wild edible bounty of nature and preserving for the long winter months. The recipes are sometimes traditional and sometimes innovative but always interesting and most are something I feel comfortable attempting, (I can cook but am no gourmet.)
Whether she is investigating the effects of homogenized milk on the human body or offering accessible recipes, Ms. Mather feels like a good friend sharing her wealth of knowledge on a visit to her home. She makes locavorism accessible to everyone by acknowledging that it can mean different things to different people as they follow their own conscience. For example, Ms. Mather chooses to purchase fair trade coffee beans (obviously not a local item) and roast the beans herself rather than eliminate that pleasure from her diet – a reasonable compromise in my estimation.
I had found this book in my library and checked it out to read, savoring the pages over lunches at work and in the evening while my little one was tucked up in bed. I have come across many books in my life that felt like a visit with the writer but this is one visit I truly wish had not come to a close so soon. It is also one I plan to revisit many times by purchasing the book for my home library.