Photo 1: Barry Estabrook's presentation
Photo 2: Pig Tales: An Omnivore's Guide to Sustainable Meat
Katie: I was most inspired by the actionable matter-of-fact presentations led by writer, editor and recipe developer
Joy Manning, author of
Almost Meatless. The message presented in her session “The Art of the Interview” outlined practical steps to listening well and telling a story effectively. One of Manning’s most compelling suggestions for planning an interview was to arrange a ride-along to really become a part of the story. Step into the everyday activities of the person you are interviewing. Learn to milk a cow. Tag along on a produce delivery route. Get into the kitchen and watch as a chef prepares dinner.
Our own editor Maya Parson took us out to lunch on Sunday, at
Short’s Burger and Shine. Short’s serves local beef, Iowa craft beer and their own whiskey. Over burgers and iced tea, we played it cool as we discussed many of the writing and storytelling ideas we could bring home to
Edible Michiana. And, on the walk back to the conference, Maya asked us to write about our experience for
Edible’s website. We said we’d think about it.
Not really. We said “Yes!”
Molly: Sunday afternoon as Katie and I headed back to South Bend, she pulled out Elissa Altman’s Poor Man’s Feast to read aloud as I drove homeward. As a native New Yorker, Altman has enjoyed lifelong access to foods of the world, so before long Katie quit trying to sound out the difficult words and just Googled the pronunciations and definitions of food words from foreign tongues. Lest you think either Katie or I are either callow or not well-read, here is a partial list of what we were up against: epoisses, Teleggio, Larousse Gastronomique and miroton. And that was just the first chapter.
Switching off behind the wheel, we read to each other through sundown and beyond. Katie’s cookies gone the way of all cookies, we moved on to my local Honeycrisp apples and non-local walnuts.
“I wonder where walnuts come from,” I mused.
“Walmart,” said Katie, without hesitation. “Definitely.”
