Our Story

Hello, my name is Shannon Douglas and I write, photograph, design, develop recipes for and publish Honest Magazine from a little mountain town about 35 miles east of Seattle in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

I've worked as a commercial food, travel, and lifestyle photographer shooting cookbooks, campaigns, and stories for companies like Cherry Bombe Magazine, Eater.com, and The Mountaineers Books. While in school for photography, I was drawn to telling stories through food and a certain kind of slow-paced lifestyle. Unable to find food at grocery stores that had the appeal I craved, I decided to make it myself, scouring local thrift stores for affordable props to create the story I pined for.

Looking for a way to show magazine editors and book publishers my new skills, I decided to put together a magazine to demonstrate my images and practice shooting to layouts and themes. I gathered a few favorite recipes, wrote some fruitful headnotes, and displayed my images alongside. In the post it went and, after positive feedback and a handful of years, I decided to open the magazine to the public. Today, Honest is printed and mailed in its vibrant, permanent form to readership across the world and makes a sturdy sound when dropped on a coffee table or kitchen counter.

At the heart of it, it's about an honest pace of life. Living in a connected, intentional way and stopping to consider the smalls of life adds depth. Rooted in nature- be it the wild berries, silver-skinned salmon, or beets swelling in your garden- recognizing the connection we all have to our food, our earth and each other reminds us of the hidden treasures all around us. A few themes weave their way through each issue.

FORAGE

Foraging is an ancient and universal practice, a practical skill, and a beautiful way to connect to nature. Groves of wild watercress call for delicate salads, peppery licorice fern sends notes of anise and black cap raspberries sing a rich, jammy song. Wherever we may be, so too are an abundance of treasures hidden in plain sight. Wild versions of common plants, herbs, and varieties popular with native peoples. There is so much to learn and so much room for creativity in foraging when practiced responsibly.

COOK

Foraging, collecting edible flowers, gardening and cooking go hand in hand and come together full circle at the table. Kneading a spring harvest of nettles into pasta dough and sprinkling fragrant flowering thyme over a roast marries nature, beauty and skill into one nourishing celebration. Food is a universal connection with as many endless paths as blackberry vines and, gone about in a sensible manner, will nourish soul and body alike.

FLORA

The foraging and arranging of flowers (particularly wild varieties) are a continuous subject of the magazine and the lifestyle behind it. Gathering knee-high fennel fronds on the side of the road, picking through Queen Anne's Lace, and pulling together a vignette of meadow wildflowers in the summer. Introduction to varieties, information on care, and how to arrange a wild-hearted bouquet dot the issues, as does instruction for how to incorporate into edible varieties food.

GARDEN

Growing something nurtures a connection to the earth like no other. Nursing a seed into fruitful bounty restores our connection to our food source, reminds us of our self-reliance, and teaches us all a thousand lessons. Gardens are wondrously inspiring places individual to each of us and offer so much room for customization. Whether you want to landscape a native plant garden, home to pollinators and a sanctuary space for hummingbirds, or fill a greenhouse with terra cotta pots of overflowing herbs gone to flower, issues explore the harvest of fruit trees, tending of vegetable beds, trellising of beans and peas and weave the connection between native plants, food sources, and beauty.

These things are the foundation of the recipes, articles and life we aim to create and practice.