‘Butcher and the Vegetarian’ — a delicious read

By Kathryn Reed

Our relationship with food seems to always be evolving. Tastes change. New foods are incorporated into our repertoire. Friends and eating are woven together.

All of these concepts and so much more are melded into the pages of “The Butcher and the Vegetarian” by Tara Austen Weaver.

The 228-page hardcover from 2010 is one woman’s struggles to figure out what diet is best for her to be healthy.

She grew up as a vegetarian, with her mother still not putting meat products past her lips. But then doctors tell Weaver eating meat will make her healthy.

Weaver is reluctant to embrace her doctor’s theory. But finally she gives in. Her description of trying to figure out what meat to buy, let alone how to cook it is comical – and yet so believable.

She calls bacon “the gateway drug.”

Her quest takes her beyond the butcher shop and to the land where her meat is coming from.

She doesn’t let cookbooks alone teach her how to prepare meat, but instead gets lessons from a barbecue master.

It’s the honesty in her words that comes through – the struggles of her childhood, ethical choices about meat and eating locally, and deciding to listen to her body above all else.

It’s one of those books that is not geared to a specific category of food eater. Meat and non-meat eaters who have given an ounce of thought about what they eat and where it comes from will be able to relate to most aspects of the book.

Weaver does not lecture. It’s her reality she is writing about. Mostly she does so in a light-hearted, captivating manner that keeps the pages turning.