I like to cook. I like to shop at farm stands and the surprise of opening a CSA box once per week and discovering—straight from the source—just what’s in season at that minute. What I don’t like is looking at the third week of kale and realizing I’m out of ideas.
Julie Resnick of Amagansett knows this feeling well. She and her husband, Dan, make it a point to shop local and have been dedicated subscribers to the community-supported agriculture program at Quail Hill Farm since 2009. She knows how to cook, having attended culinary school, but some days she was just looking for a little inspiration, not a recipe.
“I knew other CSA members were getting the same things I was,” she says. “And I wanted to know what they were doing with it.” Putting together her background as a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City and a veteran of digital agencies, Julie came up with the idea for feedfeed, a social media platform where users can submit photos of their breakfasts, lunches and dinners to share with other stumped cooks. For now feedfeed is operating on Instagram and Twitter, but the couple will soon release an app they hope will build its own community and give users the opportunity to scroll through and see ideas they can use to be more resourceful in their own kitchens.
“For instance,” says Julie, “I make scones three or four times a year, but I always make berry. I checked my stream and saw someone was making scones with mandarin oranges, cardamom and pistachios. I never would have thought of that.”
Currently participants like chef Jason Weiner of Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton are posting photos to Instagram with the hashtag #feedfeed. The Resnicks then choose which ones to share with followers of @thefeedfeed tagging it extensively with tags like #nom #yummy #vegan #homecooked and #glutenfree. Their choices and hashtags will provide their app with a curated stream and categories followers can easily check. As of mid-March feedfeed had nearly 5,000 followers on Instagram; their more successful posts generate over 400 likes and dozens of gushing comments.
They plan to make the app free but are looking into revenue models, including local advertising or partnerships with investors, and plan to donate a percentage to small local farms.
With feedfeed, the Resnicks believe they can increase your menu options exponentially. “One would have to scour a lot of different sources to find the amount of inspiration that could be found in a dedicated social network for food,” says Julie. “The benefit of this is that by connecting with other food enthusiasts you are finding inspiration from real people, who may have read one or two cookbooks, two or three food magazines or who may have visited a dozen blogs in the past month.”
“This is in line with the food movement and what’s going on out here,” says Dan. “It’s not how to make something but how to make it differently.”
Learn more at instagram.com/thefeedfeed and at feedfeed.info
