A Viral Cookbook
A few months ago I had written to all my cousins to ask for a recipe and story. An amazing thing happened, I received 4 responses from my cousins and only two recipes. I had used this as a learning experience to help people with their problems with collecting recipes for relatives.
Something neat has happened over the last few weeks, my cousins virally have started to compare stories about growing up. They are asking each other if they remember this place, that experience and this food. What is happening is something much more than I could have asked for.
There might not be any recipes but this banter will end up in a cookbook. I may need some more recipes that will compliment these stories. I am going to check some German cookbooks to fill in where there is no one to ask. This cookbook will be sent as gift during the holiday season.I am not promising which year but my goal is to get it done this year.
I really learned something from this experience: As the questions until they resonate…I asked for recipes and stories. If I had as questions that I knew they might remember then I could have triggered some of this dialog. As a personal historian I know to ask questions several ways and then move on. Once you hit the right nerve the stories will come. The same works for family stories, ask and then ask differently and get ready to change the question until you the nerve that will get the response. The right trigger gets great stories just like my cousins are sharing with each other via email and soon to become a family cookbook to be shared within this tiny group of people.
Something neat has happened over the last few weeks, my cousins virally have started to compare stories about growing up. They are asking each other if they remember this place, that experience and this food. What is happening is something much more than I could have asked for.
There might not be any recipes but this banter will end up in a cookbook. I may need some more recipes that will compliment these stories. I am going to check some German cookbooks to fill in where there is no one to ask. This cookbook will be sent as gift during the holiday season.I am not promising which year but my goal is to get it done this year.
I really learned something from this experience: As the questions until they resonate…I asked for recipes and stories. If I had as questions that I knew they might remember then I could have triggered some of this dialog. As a personal historian I know to ask questions several ways and then move on. Once you hit the right nerve the stories will come. The same works for family stories, ask and then ask differently and get ready to change the question until you the nerve that will get the response. The right trigger gets great stories just like my cousins are sharing with each other via email and soon to become a family cookbook to be shared within this tiny group of people.
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