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[peoplesheritageharvest]

Art of the Interview

If this blog will be my accountability tool and track my process, I need to answer two questions:

Is the city in need of People's Heritage Harvest?

If so, who/what can I learn from to make it happen?

I'm not a journalist, I'm not even a very good writer, but I'm engaged and I've got tools.  I have a big list of people already in mind to talk to, well-informed friends willing to connect me, and several friends that are professional communicators -- all this will help me pull together a huge amount of information quickly.

After a quick conversation with one of the sharpest minds I know, we ran through ways to document interviews and how to form questions. It's still up in the air if I'll have full articles, just post transcribed conversations, if I'll post video of Skype or Google Hangout calls, or maybe even edit and post podcasts. I hope you'll give me feedback on what you're enjoying along the way.

So what am I asking of my interviewees?  I imagine each conversation will have its nuances, but to start, this is my list of questions:

What is your food philosophy and how did it form? Who do you want to enjoy/eat/care about the food you create? When did you start cooking for yourself/others?

What/who have some of your biggest influences been? Why? Do you have a mentor now? Who?

How did you come to work in your current position?

Where/what kind of work would you like to be doing 5 years from now? With who? Why?

What is your favorite meal to make to comfort someone/yourself after a rough day? Why?

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share on the blog? What is it?

Do you think DC needs a community space like Peoples Heritage Harvest? Why? If yes, where?

I've had the opportunity to speak with several people already.  The blog will soon be featuring interviews from the volunteer coordinator at Masbia Soup Kitchen Network, some of the chefs at The Hamilton, the Research and Policy Coordinator from Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington DC, food-writer and folklorist from Nothing-in-the-House, and many more!

Again, I hope you'll make suggestions along the way.  Interview ideas, blog ideas, affirmation or constructive criticism are all welcome.  Remember, I saved a seat for you. Thank you all!

[peoplesheritageharvest]

Stay Warm

As the winter precipitation has me home, I'm happy for the time to reflect and give thanks for the wonderful time I had with my soul-sister, Christy, who hosted a Vision Board party at her home yesterday.

I know what you're thinking, we totally had an Oprah afternoon -- Christy had a beautiful lunch and presents (journals, pens, magazines, supplies) waiting for us, tools to aid our dreaming. I haven't completed Oprah’s suggested reading, The Secret, but I do feel like there is something to the reticular activation system (RAS).

RAS is the phenomena where someone says something specific -- i.e.  the baby-name she is deliberating over -- and suddenly you notice the name everywhere. These vision boards are a way for us to hone our focus and set priorities. Christy notes the goal setting success would hinge 10% on the clarity of our goal, 10% on the clarity of our action steps, and most importantly 80% on our accountability. She also suggested putting the board somewhere it'll have fresh impact as you start your day, i.e. not somewhere where you're reeling with thoughts about what to do next.  Mine is in our bathroom, where I can see the whole thing or focus on sections as a subtle, quiet, peaceful reminder.

Even though it’s not a magical process, I felt electrified having been in a room with seven other vibrant and beautiful women.  I also felt like it was a full-circle moment; three years earlier, I was on a retreat in a another room of women making a poster that was based on my ideals in life.  The posters were mirrors of each other and my intentions. The common thread in both the posters and my personal philosophy and hope for People's Heritage Harvest: live life like it’s a family dinner – everyone has a role, works together, everyone shares food, ideas, stories, success, pain, words, quiet, and fellowship.  I'm all in, and this blog is my accountability tool.

Christy doesn’t suggest something unless she knows it’s tried and true, she’s been doing these vision boards for a little over four years and with lots of success. I’m so excited to hone my focus with my vision board.  It’s not a beautiful artwork, it’s visual note-taking. It’s not a magic, it’s a reminder of how to set our sights and get to work on what we believe in. 

Here’s a peak at the finished product:

[peoplesheritageharvest]

In the past few years, I moved from self-taught baker to the pros (thank you Youtube and Veganomicon), all the while thinking that now "I get paid to learn." Suddenly, I realized it's not just the baking, ALL of this growing-up business has paid me many times over in the form of friendships and experiences that enrich my life. It dawned on me, I've got to cash in all these excellent XP (experience points for the non-gamers). These people and skills are leading me to a calling, a purpose.  I believe pursuing People's Heritage Harvest is that calling.

This weekend I'm emailing some of my allies to see if they'll share some of their XP.  What brought them to their work, what keeps them there, what's hard, what's wonderful.  They've started coops, ran board meetings, slung hash, stocked shelves, taught students, and managed volunteers... the stuff that builds the kitchen table of my dreams. I won't pretend I'm a focused visionary, I'll just let the inspiration of others stew and inform me, helping me in the right place at the right time.

Until our next blog, check out this great article about Lagusta Yearwood and her revolutionary chocolate shop in NY.  The fact that she uses Tcho is already giving me a baker-boner (best chocolate I've EVER tasted).  Thank you for sharing, Becky!

“She’s a feminist, anarchist, vegan chef. No matter how much like a hippie-skewering skit the sketch of her might seem, this woman is punk. After getting a degree in women’s studies, she attended New York City’s Natural Gourmet Institute and trained in Connecticut at the feminist cooperative vegetarian restaurant Bloodroot. She began her foray into being what she calls an “antipreneur” with a savory meal-delivery service. It was in off-hours from running that business that she began rolling and selling fair-trade-chocolate truffles out of her home. In 2010, she and Jacob bought the foreclosed laundromat that would become Lagusta’s Luscious, envisioning it as a wholesale chocolate factory with a shop up front for selling extras. Instead, the business is about 60-40 retail to mail order, and has become its own little utopia..."

[peoplesheritageharvest]

I saved a seat for you

I’ve had the best conversations over a meal.  Healing or hard.  Everyone has something to do when they don’t want to make eye contact. They can make eye contact if they want to. Everyone will at the very least satisfy some hunger. If you do talk, you find out things you’d never expect about other people.  All of these things come even more easily if there is really tasty food that makes you feel considered and included – special. I’d very much like to have dinner with you. Maybe we can make it together. Or any meal for that matter.

This is your invitation to the table, I’d like to invite you (yes you, there!) into a dialogue about the formation of an organization called The People’s Heritage Harvest.  It has no physical form yet, but I’m brimming with ideas, questions, and hopes for what I envision as a community center that revolves around food – a think tank for the whole community to learn and share differences and commonalities, problems and solutions.  A place to live life like it's a family dinner.  My head reels with the thought of classes (food safety, heritage cooking, nutrition, farm to table, activism…), family meals open to all neighbors, mobile food delivery, a network to easily access human-service resources, gardening, and community partnerships galore.  I want all this to be about people connecting neighbors of all needs and backgrounds. It has potential to take many forms, but I’d like direction to be focused on the vision that a good meal prepared with love and eaten with good company can save your day, maybe even start a serious change in your life. There is no time or place that couldn’t use more nourishment of the human spirit than now.

Fortunately, I have many allies that work in the food-service and human-service industries. I have no desire to reinvent the wheel, so this blog will document my research. I’m hoping to interview colleagues (teachers, restaurateurs, bakers, chefs, non-profit leaders, and all sorts of in-betweeners), learn about starting a business/non-profit, assess the needs and desires of neighbors in D.C., and see how viable this vision is.  I do not know where this will lead, yet, but I know I’m meant to do it.

Worst case scenario, my home will be the proving ground, my kitchen the R&D facilty, my fingers the tools, this blog the expanding of that community.

Would you like to learn favorite dishes from your neighbors?  Would you want to teach them?  Would you hear that neighbor out if they had a wonderful/crappy/ok day? Would you break bread with them?

I have so many people and organizations I’d like to talk to, but if you have suggestions, please email me with contacts at peoplesheritageharvest at gmail dot com. My next blog will address friends I’d like to talk to and the questions I’ve started to pull together for interviews.

Thank you all for your intererst, support, and love.  I hope you can help, I believe you already have.

Hugs,

Katie Beckman-Gotrich