About Ellie Markovitch, multimedia artist, elliemarkovitch@gmail.com

When I cook my mother’s carrot cake, it is like she is next to me. Her recipe connects me to her and if you make her recipe, I share her with you.

Growing up in Brazil, I watched and helped my mother bake on Friday afternoons so we would have goodies for the weekend.  She is very economical in the kitchen and many times I watched her replace the milk with water, add 2 eggs when the recipe called for 3.  She made almost everything we ate.

As a family, we gleaned.  My grandparents had a very small farm and we went to visit them, we would go to nearby farms and pick leftover food.  Whatever they would offer, we would collect: avocados, guavas, mangos, corn, coffee, tomatoes. The car would always be filled to the top. When we got home, we would process, clean, cut, freeze or can and share with others. I say we, because my brother and I did our share. Peeling garlic was not that fun, though.  I cannot pass by a fruit tree without checking if there are fruits.  I cannot contain my desire to reach for them.

Gathering is part of who I am.  I gather people’s stories as a photojournalist. In this site, we gather recipes and stories about food, connecting people through the intimate food-based narratives they make and share.

About Amy Halloran, writer.

I stitch myself to people with stories, and with food.  If I can’t tell you a story at my table, I can share time with you through a story, about me or about something that has caught my mind’s eye.  Food is one of the greatest human glues, opening up our memories and rooting us in our identities.  I found my footing in the kitchen at a very young age and I return to recipes to strengthen the connection between who I am today and the way I saw the world as a little girl.

I write about farming and food for a newspaper and on my blog, where I tell the tales of my family’s garden and our many experiments in growing and saving food.  Digital stories are a new media for me, and I’m thrilled to find a storytelling method that allows people’s voices to come through so loud and clear.