Food Influential: An Intro

Hi! I’m Ginger Ann Hughes, and if you don’t know me or Preserved Press, you can read all about me here. Last week I attended The Southern C’s 10th Anniversary Summit, and man did they bring out the heavy hitters to fill us with all kinds of inspiration! If you are a female-led, small-business owner, at any stage, I highly encourage you to check-out The Southern C! Not only did I leave Sea Island with an exhaustive list of take-aways, lots of new connections and friends, loads of ideas, but also a renewed sense of purpose for this newly started business.

During the conference I started digging into the “why” of Preserved Press. Why is food so important to me? And why is it important for me to pass down to my girls? The word connection stood at the forefront - connection to family past and present, to friends, to place, to culture. I often think of the women who not only made food for me, but taught me how to make food - my mother, my aunts, my grandmothers, and beyond. Of equal importance are where those meals took place and the memories they hold - at a small kitchen table inside my paternal grandparent’s house on Eagle Avenue where pepper sauce was king; at the end of the pier at my maternal grandparent’s in Ocean Springs smoking ribs or eating freshly caught crab; my mom’s annual birthday beignets growing up in Birmingham where friends would wake up early to come have a bite; or home in Atlanta, cooking a meal on my stove, while my girls play close by. They may not always choose to participate, and that’s ok, but I know they are watching and I hope they will in turn use food as a way to connect with their loved-ones, and share their food stories along the way.

I know we all have memories attached to a special meal or a specific food, and if you’re from the South, we likely have similar recipes. As a way to continue and deepen connection, I want to create a space that not only highlights the women who have influenced me, in any capacity, but to showcase the food that influenced them and how it has shaped their present. In addition to these stories, I’ll be interjecting interesting recipes and findings from my preservation projects, and other influences along the way.

I hope you’ll join me!