Food-Year's Resolutions

I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's inspiring, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is her family's year-long (really life long!) journey into eating local, organic, seasonal food. Virtually all of their food they harvest themselves (living on a small farm) or acquire from local farmers. They make all of their food themselves (no prepackaged, sugar-laden, trans fat-filled goodies for them!) and cooking and eating become a way for their family and friends to come together. The book chronicles their story and also raises questions about the immorality of the food industry in the United States.

Now, I don't live on a farm, but it's forced me to re-evaluate my own eating habits. Kingsolver doesn't demand that everyone do exactly what she and her family have done, but she does (with the writing help of her husband, Steven, and oldest daughter, Camille) give simple suggestions and compelling arguments for all of us to eat the way humans have eaten for much of our history as a species. For me, on the cusp of autumn, I won't be able to accomplish some of my food goals until summer returns, but I've decided to set some "Food-Year's Resolutions" for the upcoming seasons:

1. Cook a whole chicken. (This might sound odd to some of you, but as a person who was a vegetarian for 12 years, this is big for me!)
2. Can something (probably tomatoes or preserves)
3. Frequent my farmer's market more regularly (we have the fortune of having a year-round one here in Oakland, and it's only a mile from my house!)
4. Make pumpkin soup that doesn't start with a can
5. Stop buying meat/poultry/eggs that isn't grass fed or free range
6. Commit to buying organic dairy
7. Cut as much processed foods as possible out of my diet (something I'm already doing, but there's still room for improvement!)
8. Try a new recipe twice a month
9. Cook -- and eat -- fresh asparagus (FYI: I loathe asparagus, but I'm willing to give this Spring vegetable another try)