Stories and Snacks: A Festival of Home Cooking History

The Queens Memory Project and the Voelker Orth Museum are partnering for a festival of home cooking in Flushing, Queens.

This inaugural festival is an immersive celebration of food and cultural memory. Activate your senses and connect to the diversity of Queens culinary traditions as you explore the Voelker Orth House and its Victorian garden.

Hear from experts on history and cooking, taste samples from local food vendors, and swap family stories and recipes. See how to preserve a record of your family’s home cooking traditions, and get creative in hands-on family workshops.

Join us to add your stories, heritage, and food traditions to the living history of Queens!

BACKYARD PICNIC
Try samples from local artisanal producers of all things fermented! Learn how you can preserve your food through live demos by experts in the museum’s Victorian garden. Featuring Did You Khado (Jamaica), Taste of Surabaya (Flushing), Green Earth Urban Gardens (Whitestone), Goshen Kimchi (Long Island City), Uncle Edik’s Pickles (Fresh Meadows), and Sandwich Therapy (Jackson Heights).

MEMOIRS IN ACTION
We all have stories about our favorite dishes and memorable meals. Stories about the kitchens, where we cooked alongside our loved ones. Stories about the recipes we’ve inherited, invented, or adapted. Join George Bodarky of WNYC to share your story and be part of the Food Memoirs series.

SAVE MY RECIPE!
Bring your own photos of family cookouts and holiday feasts, handwritten recipe cards, and family food mementos to scan with digital archiving experts from the Queens Memory Project. Learn preservation how-to’s in the areas of oral history and digitization. You’ll have the option to submit your newly preserved records to the forthcoming Queens Memory cookbook.

STORIES FROM THE SOFA
Join us in the living room for a line-up of expert talks and storytelling with your neighbors, including food journalist Caroline Shin. Share a recipe steeped in family lore, from the tried-and-true classics to that out-of-date recipe you just can’t throw away. You’ll learn new techniques you can use at home, connect to the multicultural fabric of the city, and jump into guided conversations on celebrations, traditions, and humor.

FAMILY WORKSHOPS
Educators and artists will lead family workshops to connect kids to cultural recipes and family tradition in hands-on activities throughout the day.

Free and open to all. RSVP here.