FINDING YOUR 'PAUSE'... is hard in the overwhelming holiday season.
If you are anything like us, you struggle to find balance in the increasingly commercialized holiday season. While we so desperately want to 'take back' the holiday, we find it hard to strike a balance. It's easy to go overboard in the DIY direction (which can cause just as much stress as braving the crowds at stores or depleting your bank account) or to abstain completely (which can be counter to the whole point of the holiday season).
So we are taking pause.
When we think about the things that matter to us, it's generosity, community, and the spirit of shared experiences. This year, we're hoping to shed the weight of excessive gift giving, and give what is most pleasurable, personal, and limited of all - time together. It's making holiday sweets (with good friends, to give to other good friends), hand-rolling ravioli from a beloved family recipe (made with family, to be served to on the holiday), setting the holiday table (together, for a shared feast), or traveling farther than we might ordinarily go to see friends and family who all happen to be in the same place at the same time.
Whatever your traditions are, we hope that they continue to reflect the things that are important to you and those that you love. And that they are able to evolve over the years, as that group continues to ebb and flow and grow.
We're sending out special thanks this week to Antonelli's Cheese Shop in Austin, TX. Their own email newsletter provided great inspiration for our own thoughts today. We appreciate that their small family business always treats their community as a family, and shares with them in the most meaningful ways.
****
Speaking of taking pause, we'd like to take a long one and fill it with applause for the WINNERS of our #GoGastrognomes Instagram contest! That's right, our competition has finally come to a close. In case you managed to miss it, at the end of the summer we put a few (hand-sewn and eco-fiber-stuffed) 'gastrognomes' out into the world, in the hopes that they would inspire more meet-ups between our widespread GFJ neighbors. Over the course of three months they made it to:
- 4 continents (North America, South America, Europe, and Africa) and several countries (including US, Ecuador, South Africa, Italy, Spain, and Denmark)
- Several universities (such as the University of Brighton and the University of Kentucky)
- Farmers Markets and Street Markets (like Santa Monica Farmers Market)
- Co-ops (such as Park Slope Food Co-op)
- Farms (even a Truck Farm)
- Restaurants (like NOMA in Denmark)
- And Coffee Shops (for example, Counter Culture in NC)
- And breweries (Hill Farmstead in Vermont)
- And an urban winery (Clay Pigeon Winery in Portland, OR)
- Not to mention countless home kitchens, where one of them was snapped taking first prize in the contest!
We picked our winners based on a variety of factors, including creativity, effort, artistry and crowd response. We hope you'll appreciate how far they all went to inspire good food feelings.
  
FIRST PRIZE left
Congratulations to @lorubbgm for her Bourbon Pecan Pie entry, which hit all of our targets: it featured a clever caption, included homemade baked goods, and was beautifully framed and shot. Nice work!
SECOND PRIZE middle
Goes to @UKcsa. We loved their use of a gnome unique to their university, who accompanied them on various tasks around the farm. In the winning shot, he's at work with others in the field, displaying great teamwork and stunning vegetables.
THIRD PRIZE right
Is for @eastendmkt. Kudos for the edible custom gnome that looks good enough to nibble on. They also accrued the most 'likes' of the whole contest.
It was so hard to choose only three, given the many fantastic entries that were made throughout the past few months. See below for a few more of our favorite shots, which we're calling out as a small collection of our honorable mentions, chosen for their photo quality and / or clever commentary.
And thanks again to all that participated. We look forward to announcing out next Instagram contest come January 2015.
Cheers,
Taylor & Dorothy
Co-Founders, Good Food Jobs
|
