Stories to be proud of
I’ve meet Agathe (I know it’s fate) over my mailchimp fiasko. She just signed up to my newsletter when I’ve decided to clean up my mailing list. It was the first time when I was creating a condition driven segment on my newsletter, and of course I did it wrong!
Long story short Agathe received a newsletter stating that I will remove her from my mailing list because I’ve seen no activity from her for a long time. Not a great way to start up the conversation, you might think, but you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s turned out it was a great conversation starter, that’s how I’ve learned about her project, and today I want you to meet her too.
Who you are and what inspired you to create “HISTOIRE(S) DE CHARRUES ET D’ASSIETTES”?
I’m a 28 years old agronomist who decided a few months back to leave it all – all being my life in the city and my office job – to do something different. Not exactly to make a difference, or make the world a better place or whatever. I just wanted to do something that I would be proud to tell people about, to discover something new and to have the opportunity to take people along in that journey, and let them discover something new too.
With a friend, I created Histoire(s) de charrues et d’assiettes : it’s a non-profit project on which we’ll be working on over the next year. We want to explore food patrimony in different parts of France: dishes, products from the region. We especially want to meet the people behind those dishes and products. That is why we meet with farmers, craftmen, chefs and simple homecooks, to discover the food patrimony through their own stories.
What was your first story to tell and why it was special?
Our first person to meet was my colleague and friends Marie’s grandmother, with whom she has learned all about food and cooking, until it became a passion for her. It was very moving, because she heard some stories about her grandmother for the first time this day. I was the one who wrote the story afterwards, and she enjoyed seeing her through somebody else’s eyes ! This is the kind of emotion we will try to pass on in our project.
What your project gives to other people?
We want people to discover food patrimony through many different people, and to see that anybody can be a part of this patrimony. It’s a great way to get people to talk about agriculture, food and their region. And in every portrait, people can get to read the story of someone, each time very different. Don’t we need a little more connection with other humans ? Plus, we take extra care of the quality of the pictures (even though I’m far from a pro) and the writing, hoping to make reading it a good moment for everybody.
Why use hand drawn icons to complement the overall design?
I have always been fond of hand drawing. While designing our website, I wanted to make something very graphic but simple, with only a few colors, to bring out the pictures. But it lacked something : it was very cold, not friendly. That’s when I came across Agata’s hand drawn icons, and I fell in love ! They were exactly what we needed to finish the design ! We loved the idea so much we decided to use them in our recipes too.
What are your plans for the future?
Well, keep working for the non-profit until the end of the year : two more regions to go, Brittany and Picardy ! Then, it’s still uncertain… I hope to do something I will enjoy as much as this… but it will have to allow me to earn a living, I won’t live on my savings forever !
Where people can find you online?
Our website is www.histoiresdecharruesetdassiettes.fr
Everything is in french, but you can enjoy the pictures, maybe get an idea of the text with google translate (even though I’m not so sure about how good the translation is), and please ask us if you want a recipe in english!
