In this seamless diary narrative, best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver tells how she and her family relocated to southern Appalachia after suffering through years of drought in Arizona. Their purpose was to "live in a place that could feed us" by growing their own food and living among a community of local organic food growers.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows the family through the first year of their experiment to realign their lives with the local food chain. They find themselves eager to move away from the typical food scenario of American families: a refrigerator packed with processed, factory-farmed foods transported long distances using nonrenewable fuels. In their search for another way to eat and live, they begin to recover what Kingsolver considers our nation's lost appreciation for the American family farm.