Several years ago, it occurred to my father that some of us kids who couldn't get home for the holidays might want to eat as if we were at home, so he collected all the family Christmas recipes into a booklet, and he printed five copies, with a festive cover and a spiral binding, and he gave one to each of us. They're like Bibles to us now, because the Holiday season has always been marked by foods that we eat only in December, most of which could be made only by certain people, some of whom didn't travel, so you had to go to them, all of which was part of the holiday story.

   What do you eat and drink this time of year, and how did those items wind up on your holiday menu? Let's start a collection of holiday recipes -- and the stories behind them -- on Barn Talk, the Great Country Farms blog. Send me an email with the recipe and the story and a photo, and I'll post them to a dedicated page. Later we can increase community engagement by inviting our guests to do the same thing. And we can all expand our kitchen repertoires!