You light up my life: Each of you has “made my year” with your thoughtful contributions
And I am talking readers and participants, here!
I am most definitely a goal setter and the new year is a time for reflection about past successes and lessons learned and a time to adjust, re-adjust and focus on the future.
And I set goals I will succeed at. There are too many things in life I have no control over. I do have control over my passions, enthusiasm and time (with the exception of emergent family needs). Thus, goal setting is a joy for me and reflecting over the achievements and learnings of each past year is consistently a revelation. When I was younger, I was in awe of how much was possible in one entire year. Now that I am older, I am in awe of how much more I used to accomplish when I was younger.
The Canadian Food Experience Project
The Canadian Food Experience Project was initiated by me so there is no question about me not following through, no matter what. That being said, I certainly understand how difficult it is for anyone making a commitment to a challenge for a year to follow through. I have not been able to follow through with my communications as I have not been able to have the time to read everyone’s posts since Challenge four. That is due to my dad’s illness, yet pressing hard on my heart as I am confident that part of the reason people are beginning to fall by the way side in this project is the lack of that personal response and relationship. I know how important it is and am truly heart-sick as I see the affects of my inability to keep this up.
I have committed to projects initiated by others, and unless it is completely aligned with my own passions, I have learned I do not succeed. I just cannot work “things” into my schedule that I am not passionate about and that do not align with my food ethics and goals. I am so inspired and motivated and impressed by the 35% of our participants who consistently complete the challenge each month.
As each arrives in my mail box, I feel I have been offered a precious gift. I do not exaggerate.
This is an incredibly important project to me, to our Canadian Food Blogging community as we work to find and express our Canadian voice to the global food community and to our Canadian culinary food heritage as we share heritage and regional foods as well as our multicultural ethnic settlement foods and learn together through this work.
As Ginni celebrated Julie Van Rosendaal and her contribution to Canadian Food, I learned about Cronuts!
And is this project succeeding? Yes, it is! By all means, I am overwhelmed each month by the conversations, exchanges and posts by participants of this project designed to explore the vastness of our landscape and our Canadian experience together, once a month, throughout the following year as we work to more clearly define and identify our Canadian Voice.
What is working?
I would like to hear from each of you about what is working for you. For me:
- The topics are good and timely culturally and seasonally; am am consistently motivated to address each one.
- The stories are compelling and heart warming and revealing and so Canadian!
- Many of us have evolved through this process to understand what Canadian food is and have acknowledged that this process has definitely edified and centered you
- Participants have developed confidence within their writing regarding Canadian food and have more clearly defined their Canadian Voice
- Readers have expressed appreciation and enthusiasm for the project and have rejoiced in our quest to work to identify our Canadian Voice
- Many of us are writing specifically about Canadian food (identifying it as such with a story and explanation) at other times of the month which was not happening before
- The recipes reveal time and place regionally and culturally and weave themselves in our Canadian food tapestry
- I have learned about specific produce and food in specific regions that I didn’t know before
- I have consistently been intrinsically motivated by each of you and made several of your Canadian dishes in my home kitchen as I evolve as a Canadian and learn about the vast food heritage of my own country
- Others are noticing: I have been asked for interviews regarding the project and I have heard from various people in regional pockets across the country that the project is gaining ground and more and more people and specific organizations are tuning in
I’m not even going to tell you how many flapper pies I have made trying to get a great photo before it goes watery or gets eaten!
What is not working?
Some key elements are not working that I would like to understand better and have help with solving (we still have 5 challenges to go and the project will have a whole life after that):
- from the onset, few participants read and posted comments on one others work or even on the round up post
- the Facebook page isn’t being used as I am not taking a lead there: will someone volunteer to take this on?
- Twitter tweets are sporadic and inconsistent: I do tweet as I read if there is an icon available for me to tweet from inside of the post, yet some of you miss these as you do not have your twitter handle attached to these kind of tweets which must be done in the back end of your site. Can someone volunteer to take on leadership in this area?
- I did not initiate the use of Instagram, and we should be working at using this when creating our recipes (too many “should’s” though, right?)
- People are loosing interest of having difficulty getting a post up each month
Taco Pickles instead of Salsa? These are gorgeous and what a way to celebrate the preserving tradition of our Winter Country from Joanne!
Possible Solutions?
At the onset, I didn’t worry about the deadline date. Yes, it would be wonderful in a perfect world if everyone would pump their posts out at midnight on the 7th of every month, but I knew that wasn’t reasonable for me, or anyone. The goal has always been to just get the article in. Of course, getting it in my the round up makes a huge difference to the project.
- If participants, old and new, miss a challenge, they are consistently encouraged to just get it done and posted, send me the information and I add it to that challenge post: the body of work will remain . These posts are read and referred to often. This enables participants to get 9 out of 12 challenges complete within the year.
- I have asked for help with managing the Facebook and Twitter sites for this project. That would help a great deal with promoting the work of our participants. Promoting your work is important! The stories and recipes are incredible and I cannot celebrate this enough.
- Regional Teams? Marilyn made this suggestion just this week and it is a great idea. As it is completely overwhelming to read and comment on the complete body of work each month, she suggestion that people collaborate within regions to support each other by reading and commenting on the posts within the same region.
Obviously, I need your suggestions, so please chime in….
And what could be more Canadian than biscuits? I ask you? Ever man woman and child should have to learn to make these in school and then sing O Canada while they bake.
The Canadian Food Experience Project Phase II
What do you imagine for next steps? I imagine MORE. I cannot get enough.
Thinking out loud: Maybe we can create a Canadian Food Experience Project Committee…and share the communication tasks, share the project promotions, get the stories and the recipes being shared to the media and others interested in Canadian Food?
We still need to involve our aboriginal and First Nations people in this project, get more Francophones involved (have you noticed the incredible recipes coming from those participants?) We need more men. We need people from the North and some regions have only one person participating.
I have had so many recipes and stories sent to me that are not yet a part of the project that would be wonderful to have people create, and tell.
You can see I am on fire and that through this very tough year (and a half) struggling with my father’s end of life phase, that this project has been the wind beneath my wings. Oh, I know clichés are bad form: but this is my blog and I can do what I want to (whoops, two of them!).
Happy 2014 and keep those Canadian Food Experience stories and recipes coming!
Phew.. I am so glad to have made it here this evening! I can chime in and say that I loved this Canadian Theme! Thanks so much for inviting us all to participate! In my perfect world, I would love to read each and every one of the shared recipes but life sure does get busy. Before I began working full time I did spend a great deal of time reading blogs and now I find I’m lucky if I get a few hours on a Sunday to catch up. I do think a Pinterest page might be easy to manage? I’d be happy to help with that if need be. Deadlines and I.. well, I’m the queen of procrastination.. but I think I made all but one? {thinking.. thinking..}. I will have a post for this month.. but it’s a bigger project and will be coming in late:D Thanks for the inspiration!! And a belated congratulations on winning two Canadian Weblogs awards! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Valerie!! xx
Barbara,
Completely understand and you have expressed so well what I am completely aware of… getting our own work done is hard enough. I have 112 draft posts! I know I am not alone in this. Photos ready. Recipe there, stories to tell… yet, no time to complete them, and they are gorgeous recipes and travel experiences. I don’t even keep track of who is on time and who is late. I am just thrilled with the body of work I have each month to include in the challenge. I actually DID start a pinterest board, but pinterest wouldn’t let me have 2 accounts with the same e-mail – so now that I understand how to have a board with invitations, I can give that another go and would be thrilled to have help with it. Yet, I am sensitive to your time as I know how busy you have been back to work. I am still reeling at the end of my second year of retirement, wondering how I ever worked full time for 30 years, I have so much to do that I never get done.
Happy Happy 2014 Barbara!
XO
You are a force in this, Valerie, and without your leadership and vision, none of this would likely have happened … or have happened so well for you to be able to enumerate so many successes. There are indeed countless opportunities we as a group have not seized but I still see this as a glass that is overflowing with riches. I am myself only just over a year into developing my own blog and this challenge has been so instrumental to me in finding my own voice. Indeed, 8 months in, I suspect that many of us are still searching for that voice and searching for that quintessential answer as to what defines our food, us as a nation, and ourselves as individuals. I’ve taken an admittedly personal approach to these challenges, but that has been my own goal here, to learn as much about myself as it has been to learn about others and our culture as a whole.
I see 8 months into this as a resounding success. It’s been a heck of a lot of work and you’re quite right, I’ve stayed in this because this is a clear passion of mine, and I’m putting other things aside each month to accomplish this … and there have been some late nights as a result. But I’m in love with what I’m doing and you and this project have given me a space to freely express that love. I am eternally grateful to you for that … thank you.
I feel such a novice here myself, struggling to just find my footing in my own blog and kitchen. I’m learning each week by simply doing and this project is creating a focus within that which is amazing. I have no real sense of how to help or what to do because I’m learning these social media facets in my own blog’s context. I’ve committed to using Twitter this year and trying to figure out the Facebook page thing too … but I suspect of the many contributors here, I’m not alone in my naissance.
What to do with all that goodness that is overflowing? Like Barbara writes, it’s hard enough to write our own stuff let alone visit all the other pieces, let alone acknowledge them, let alone comment on them. Beyond time, though, the biggest obstacle to that is the fragmented blogosphere itself. There are a half-dozen platforms in use with various levels of ‘security’ in play. Commenting on a platform that isn’t WordPress (my home) is a labour … and a labour that I sometimes give up on because a platform won’t recognize me as human or post my words. If the point was to be unified, then a single website with all our contributions going to one place would be easiest for us and the media to find … but if the point is to plant a hundred seeds a dozen times across this wide country and create a legacy and even some permanence to this “movement” (the next stage of the project?), then I think what we’re doing is ideal … and all we can each do is our best, try to read (at least) the other contributions, promote the project and your site (which unifies us all), and hope that over time we will become that identity we are seeking to voice.
I can’t help but think of this project as a slow-food movement itself and it’s going to take time to evolve, for flavours to marry, and things to cook. Maybe we’re a cassoulet here … or just maybe we’re your fruitcake just getting ready to amaze.
Dale,
Thank you for your thoughtful revealing reflection and response to my post. You have such heart and passion in your writing and that draws me in, every time. I didn’t realize this was your first year and I am so gratified to hear how much you have personally acquired from this project. I cherish the feedback from you, your insights and work on this project and look forward to your story every month. I do believe you are right – that defining Canadian food and working to develop and clarify our Canadian Voice is a slow and ebbing movement – after all, EAT NORTH started up after this project was initiated – and the FEAST gals started their journey plans across the country just after this project was initiated. I am sure both had been brewing for quite some time. And, the time is now for this work as other similar projects rear their head.
Keep doing the great work you are doing, Dale. It is making a difference!
🙂
Valerie
I like reading the posts for this project but find little time to leave comments on each blog. I have a pretty busy schedule and as much as I would like to take the time to comment, it does not always happen. I do volunteer a lot and this takes also some of my time away from home. Also, I am speaking for myself, I find it hard to post on a fixed date. This month it will not be possible for me to post and I am sorry about that. Too many things happening. I know that I should not have any excuses but will be posting again in February.
I am sorry to hear about your dad. I hope he gets better and that you will have a bit more time for yourself Val.
Thank you for your honest reflection and what a perfect time for this refection! I still think that 35 % is a fairly good response although not a large response from the 90 participants but maybe oh so Canadian! It annoys me when I look for Canadian cookbooks that there are so few or maybe they are just not labeled as such! Yet, you see so many American Cookbooks.. that one wonders why this is such! Lets hope for a stronger Canadian voice in the new year!
In Northern Manitoba, yes on Holidays with no internet service as use Bell as our provider! In the Dauphin library to use the internet and I just checked the cookbook section.. no Canadian cookbooks but there is the Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter and Traditional Ukrainian Cookery By Savella Stechishin, which certainly are part of Canadian cuisine! Happy New Year!
Valerie, I would love to contribute but have limited technical resources and knowledge, being mainly self taught on the computer and being mechanically challenged. When I have to take a piece of equipment apart for cleaning I have to draw funny little pictures or I will be left with a pile of clean parts in a box, neatly labelled as to what it once was before I reduced it to components. I have to find someone to take pictures for me, e-mail them to me, then try and figure out, again, how to post them where I want them. I cook and bake wonderful food, can describe my creations so that you can taste them reading the words, but pictures to go with them is an almost unsurmountable obstacle.
This project seems to be happening the way Canadians usually do the things they care most about, slowly, with passion, refusing to compromise for expediencies sake and feel that this is evolving so that it becomes authenticly our voice, chronicling our journey to find our roots, keeping alive our history and traditions and taking us into a time when we recognize our everyday foods as an actual Canadian cuisine.
I do believe I have found the recipe for Chinese Chews that Bonnie White mentioned in the Christmas cookies post, a little bar with dates and nuts, sprinkled with icing sugar. Would you like the recipe?
Brendi