Mother’s Day Special: A Family Tied by Apron Strings

Mother and daughter at home together in the kitchen. Photo: Courtesy Apron Strings

It’s been my experience as a journalist that there is a story worth recounting around every corner, if we just take the time to stop and listen.

Last May I set out on a road trip to Southern California to attend Camp Blogaway, largely as a show of support for my food writing friends Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule and Susan Russo of Food Blogga, who were conducting a panel at the writer retreat.

While there I ran into blogging buddies like Andrew Wilder of Eating Rules and Adair Seldon of Lentil Breakdown, and met new ones like Shefaly Ravula of Shef’s Kitchen, her sister Amee Meghani of Rabitt Food Rocks, and Stacy Spensley, then writing as Little Blue Hen.

I was struck by the generosity of this sub-genre of scribes, who willingly passed on what they’d learned in the blogosphere, whether technical tricks or SEO secrets or ways to make money — or just have more fun — with this modern mode of storytelling and recipe sharing.

In one breakout session, as we sat in a circle in the pine-scented San Bernardino Mountains, Donna Kelly sketched out in broad strokes how she and the baby she gave up for adoption when she was 16 found their way back to each other through food many years later.

It was unexpected. It was also a showstopper of a story. Enough with plugins and giveaways and blog stats: Here was a human telling a human tale.

In honor of Mother’s Day, I share the story of how Donna and her daughter Anne Tegtmeier, the voices behind the blog Apron Strings, became a family.

Take a moment and find their tale, in their own words, over at Gilt Taste.

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Tagged as: Anne Tegtmeier, Apron Strings, Camp Blogaway, Donna Kelly, Gilt Taste