I look at my four boys, who are the colors of silt, loam, dust, and clay, an infinite palette for children of their own, and I understand that time erases whiteness altogether.
Barbara KingsolverOnce the rains abated, my father's garden thrived in the heat like an unleashed temper.
Barbara KingsolverA breeze shook rain out of new leaves onto their hair, but in their pursuit of eternity they never noticed the chill.
Barbara KingsolverMom is losing, no doubt, because our vegetables have come to lack two features of interest: nutrition and flavor. Storage and transport take predictable tolls on the volatile plant compounds that subtly add up to taste and food value. Breeding to increase shelf life also has tended to decrease palatability. Bizarre as it seems, we've accepted a tradeoff that amounts to: "Give me every vegetable in every season, even if it tastes like a cardboard picture of its former self."
Barbara Kingsolver