In honor of Thanksgiving, I took a spin around YouTube this weekend to see whether there were any good cooking or food-related videos worth watching.
The first video I stumbled across was produced by a group called Cooking Up a Story. They have been producing videos and posting them on YouTube since May of last year. They want to tell “stories about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living.” The videos have a D-I-Y ethos to them, but actually showcase some solid editing, good storytelling sensibility and charming interviewees who are clearly unscripted. I watched a video about urban fruit gleaning in Portland, Oregon and I was hooked. I ended up watching five more in the same sitting.
All of the Cooking Up a Story videos are worth watching, but here are a few of my personal favorites. “A New Family Farmer” profiles Mike, a young man who didn’t grow up in a farming family, telling the story of how he got started in his career in agriculture. “Preserving Food and Friendship” explores the tradition of making jam to extend fruit beyond one season and visits a class taught in Portland, Oregon for novice canners. “Cooking with Love: Alice’s Kitchen” features cookbook author Linda Dalal Sawaya talking about Lebanese gardening and cooking, and why she decided to collect her mother’s recipes in a book.
And for those of you in need of a pumpkin pie recipe before Thursday, here you go: