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Happy 2017! I hope this finds you eating and living well these days.

Last year, I took American Heirloom offline and experimented with different ways I could be of service to you all and the good food movement at large. I steeped myself in current events and continue to learn and try to show up on a daily basis as a better, more aware human being.

I pondered the role this project could play in uniting people and telling critical stories. A quote surfaced around this time of deep thinking as I wrote for the Good Food Jobs Holiday Refresh:

“In the end, it cannot be doubted that each of us can see only part of the picture. The doctor sees one, the patient another, the engineer a third, the economist a fourth, the pearl diver a fifth, the alcoholic a sixth, the cable guy a seventh, the sheep farmer an eighth, the Indian beggar a ninth, the pastor a tenth. Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.”

- Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air

How beautiful is that?!?!

We each have a piece to contribute to the whole of human knowledge, and this year I’m starting an art project to gather wisdom across many languages, races, and cultural backgrounds. It’ll be a crowd-sourced knowledge bank called #CollectiveFoodWisdom, and it will center around this question:

What is the most useful piece of food wisdom or advice you have ever received?

I’m looking for wisdom that people call up daily when they're at the stove:

“Make the pasta water as salty as the ocean.”

Or in the garden:

“Pick green beans when they’re young; that’s when they’re most tender.”

Or at the dining table:

“Take your time.”

I’ll create an art piece out of each answer and offer it up to you right here every week. I’ll also share it over on Instagram and eventually on my website.

Do you want to be one of the first to contribute a useful nugget of wisdom?

If yes, simply respond back with the answers to these three questions:

1) What is the most useful piece of food wisdom or advice you have ever received? It can land anywhere on the spectrum from practical to philosophical.

2) Who gave it to you?

3) How does it show up in your life?

Don’t think too hard—just go with your gut. It usually knows best :)

Yours in good food,

P.s. Let me know what you think about this idea! It’s as good as the voices who shape it, so I’d love to hear your thoughts.