How many times have you found yourself gathered around for a family holiday or even just a simple cousin’s get-together and wound up talking about the same thing – the food you all ate when you were younger?
No matter how many times you do or do not get together, there seems to be the old familiar conversation about foods, family gathering, and times gone by. With everyone so busy, wouldn’t it be great to be able to “can and preserve” all of those family food memories?
There are many great ways to gather family food heirlooms, so that generations to come can follow and enjoy them. The special flavors and tastes combined with the feelings associated with those “comfort” foods are a gift that will never stop giving, that is for certain.
How to Preserve Favorite Recipes
1. Have a Party
What better way to keep family heirlooms alive than to host a “Family Heirloom Party?”
Invite your aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings, as well as your nieces and nephews to your home. Have each guest choose which family recipe he or she will bring ingredients for and wish to make.
If your home is not big enough to have everyone over all at once, think about having a once-per-month gathering with one or two relatives and have them cook or bake a family tradition in your home.
Or, if your home is not big enough, you can start by sending out an email to your relatives, asking each one to bring a favorite family traditional dish. In this way, everyone is in the loop and each member will know what the other is bringing.
For each dish a family member brings, have them bring along a neatly printed recipe card and attach it to the dish. You can even request that each member send a reply email with the dish and the recipe attached. Be sure to take lots of photos!
2. Use Technology
You can create a newsletter and ask each family member to contribute a recipe and a favorite memory associated with each recipe.
You can create a blog or forum where your family members can post pictures and reply in the comments section, leaving their recipes and memories is something that future generations will really get a kick out of for years to come.
Contact each family member using social media or email and ask each one to contribute a recipe.
Keep them there as a digital recipe box, or turn them into a printed recipe book. There are so many ways to create a beautiful album using the many photo techniques that technology has to offer.
Shutterfly is a great example. Even your local pharmacy can assist with the makings of a beautiful keepsake album for recipes.
With the use of the internet, there is no reason why your family heirloom recipes should fall by the wayside.
Have you done something special with your family to preserve favorite recipes? Please share in the comments!
