Food and Family, the two can hardly be separated. Family events and every day suppers hold lots of food memories and they are a good place to start collecting family stories too. Everyone has a food story to share! Are you ready to collect a family story? You can ask your kids your elders or your siblings? Don’t stop there ask the cousins and Aunts and Uncles too. Even at the same events there will be different food stories. Often from the elders the women will have a version from the kitchen / cook point of view and the others from the tableside view. First be prepared, have a video device handy if possible, or a audio recording device. If neither available be ready with pen and paper to do some fast writing. Often the camera shy will permit video if you tell them you can’t write it all down fast enough and you don’t want to misquote. You can tempt the story by serving something, maybe cooking an old family recipe to start the stories flowing. A cup of coffee or pot of tea may be the magic elixir to loosen the family stories and begin the flow of words. 
A kettle of Stone Soup simmers on a camp stove. Some of the best food is the food we have when many work together to create it. This is a favorite story from me to share as a storyteller, and I share several different versions. I like it best when we get to make Stone Soup after the story and eat it too! How about starting a new family food story and making some of this with family and neighbors! Here is a link to the Original Stone Soup Story- http://www.stonesoup.com/the-original-stone-soup-story/ Now it is time to ask family and friends questions to gather some food stories for your family to treasure! 1.) What was the most memorable meal you ever ate? Let the talk run until it stops. Did they cover the who, what, when, where, why and how? Be sure to figure out how old the teller was at the time of the meal. What was it served on and who cleaned up? 2.) Who is the best cook you ever met? How did they earn that title? Are any of those recipes available? 3.) What is the strangest food you ever ate? Would you eat it again? 4.) Summer and it’s really hot, what food comes to mind? 5.) The family favorite food or recipe began with who? Hope you get some tasty answers. Remember to save the stories and share the stories and while you’re at it share the food! If you want to leave a comment on what food came to mind while reading the blog we might get some ideas from your memories.
