What Is a Food Blog?
"Food blogs are like memoirs with recipes. Every recipe comes with a backstory woven from family, culture and personal experience. Tales abound of early lessons from mothers and grandmothers, first experiences with fresh figs, strategies for Thanksgiving turkeys, and frustration with breads that fall and tomatoes that char. If there’s a rant, it’s Reggiano versus Kraft or lard versus butter, not the left versus right of politics.
"Food bloggers may start blogging with some notion of organizing favorite recipes, but we keep blogging because of connection and community. We covet comments from readers and go lengths to lure ‘lurkers’ into conversation. We watch for online food events to cook together. When we bring new babies into the world, we celebrate. When we lose a parent or a job, we console. When we struggle with illness or decision, we encourage. When we meet in person for the first time, we’re already friends." ~ Read the rest of my story about food blogs published in Sauce Magazine
This is a personal list of favorite food blogs and is not meant to list all the growing number of food blogs. If you're a food blogger and would like your blog added to a comprehensive list, check out the section above titled "Browsing for Food Blogs"; most accept new entries.
That said, I do love discovering new food blogs! If your food blog isn't listed here, please introduce your blog via blog AT kitchen [hyphen] parade {dot] com; be sure to include the URL and tell me a bit about what's special about your blog. Please be aware that I do not do link exchanges.
[Thinking about starting a food blog? Please don't be overwhelmed by the increasing number of 'polished' blogs: we all write our first (nervous) posts, all take our first (blurry) photographs.. You know those wobbly steps a toddler takes? Even marathon runners and Olympic athletes make those same first steps. Food blogging is a wonderful hobby with a warm and supportive community! Never Trust a Skinny Chef offers great counsel and a realistic approach for how to start a food blog. It's worth a read.]
If I think my readers will like your blog, I'll be happy to add it to the list. These are some of the many ways for a blog to catch my attention.
- Does your blog reflect your personality? Do you share where you live, even in a general way? (The 'United States' isn't good enough, 'the Midwest' comes close, 'a small farm in the Midwest' is plenty.) What about your family?
- Is your blog recipe centric? Occasional commercial food reviews and restaurant reviews are fine but my mission is to help home cooks find good recipes they can count on.
- That said, if your blog simply copies recipes from other sources and contains little sense of your own excitement, curiosity and learning, it's not likely going to be a favorite.
- Does your blog actively link to other food bloggers in its blogroll and its entries? I like to promote blogs that support other food bloggers and participate in the community.
- How long have you been blogging? It takes awhile for bloggers to find their "voices" and learn whether they can/want to sustain a blog. There's no hard and fast time period but give yourself at least a couple of months of at least a post a week before introducing yourself.
- Decent photos or illustrations.
- Good original writing with punctuation and grammar and little to no profanity.
- While your blog design is your design, please be aware that dark backgrounds, small fonts and few paragraph breaks are especially hard on the eyes.
- A link to A Veggie Venture is not required but frankly, it can't hurt! Neither can occasionally commenting on my own posts that catch your attention.
A Veggie Venture is home of the Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and vegetable inspiration from Asparagus to Zucchini. © Copyright 2007
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Your Comments:
I read food blogs for many reasons but it sort of boils down to two:
1) for cooking "inspiration"
2) because I've grown attached to the writer and want to keep up with their latest goings-on... it's the personality, style and agreement with their cooking philosophy that keeps me coming back. For sure.
I recently started another (second?!?!?!) food blog for 'what to pack in kids' lunches?' called Brown Bag Blues (www.brownbagblues.com)!
Kalyn ~ Thanks, a labor of love!
Rachel ~ Thanks!!
Ellie ~ I've been watching the stats and it seems like there's quite a few new blogs to people as it's some of the newer blogs that are getting the most clicks.
Karen ~ Interesting, I didn't think of a blogroll as a resource but you're right, it can be.
Genie ~ Yes you mostly blog about gardens but food people must know their sources, yes? Besides, I think about you every time I don't save scraps for compost -- maybe I should order that pot of yours after all!
Vanessa ~ Me too. Karen from FamilyStyle and I gave a presentation about food blogging to a group of St. Louis food people last week. We were 'browsing' and got onto Cookie Madness just when Anna posted that her grandmother had died. I got all teary, in front of all those people, because I knew she'd been ill, knew she was important to Anna, and so there I was!
Tanna ~ My goodness, thank you! You made my morning with that particular comment!
Sally ~ It's fun to meet bloggers from my former home state of Iowa!
Christine ~ Dessert First. (oh wait, did I miss one?)
Pille ~ You sure do! Who else shares my proclivities to carrots AND beets!!
Janelle ~ You're welcome. Brown Bag Blues sounds like a great concept for a blog.
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