This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Hi, how are you?

I'm great. Thank you.

Sarah and David Reza recently bought a place outside of Washington, D.C.

They sound excited because this is the first time they're hosting both their families.

We are making today a vegetable frittata with tomato, basil, and goat cheese.

We've got home fries.

We've got regular waffles.

Sarah and David wanted to start a new tradition.

Cook brunch with ingredients from their home garden.

The home fries have rosemary from our garden and the frittata has basil from our garden.

This is Sarah's way of going back to her family's roots. She remembers her mother doing the very same thing. I remember growing up, my mom had a garden, and she would always come back with, like, these tiny little tomatoes and be like, I provided for my family. Look, family, I grew this. And we're like, yeah, that's the smallest tomato ever. But there's something about being able to grow stuff and being able to give it to people that you love that's pretty exciting.

So, yeah.

My grandmother would always say that...

This is Sarah's brother, Zach.

The sharing food is important, but I'd say the most important part is being around the table.

But food was the lure to get everyone.

Yeah, exactly. Food kept us there.

Yes, exactly.

Food brought us together.

But it was the, it's the company in the conversation.

Today on Hidden Brain, the profound role that food plays in our lives.

...