A Year in Review...

So it's now 2012 and I am already itching to get into the garden again.  Winters are always tough on the gardener...

Its my plan to get more out of this winter by brushing up on my foraging knowledge...

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

End of the year...

 I wanted to take this opportunity to go over some of the highlights from my blog...in case you missed some of my favorite posts.  Its been a great year!  77 posts after I first started this blog, I'm thrilled to see the community of gardeners, foragers and cooking afficianados that have gathered together.

I've seen folks post wonderful pictures of their gardens, their storing methods and general pride in what they's grown with their own two hands.

I've posted 31 posts about recipes.  Each recipe I make, I strive to include at least 2 items from our garden, foods I've foraged in the wild or ingredients that has been grown locally.  I've found some wonderful bloggers out there and I'm proud to say I've "borrowed" some of their recipes too.

I hope to inspire people to grow more, buy locally and eating foods from the wild whereever they can.

As for the highlights:

-This past year we found morel mushrooms for the first time! 

-I took the family on our first group foraging trip.

-We discovered a few things growing in our garden that we didn't plant! (like canteloupe and coriander)

-We also found out that some of the weeds we had been pulling out of our garden were actually edible!

-I did several business spotlights on people who operate locally...people who promote eating locally or living gently on the earth.

-We received gifted railway ties to finish off the garden borders.

-I created some beautiful garden art from scratch!

I showed how to make some wonderful fall decorations using found items.

-In July, I experimented with some recipes from the RAW food diet.

-Some of the foraged items we tried this year were: cattails, puffballs, wild leeks, wild black raspberries, dandelions, milkweed blossums, morel mushrooms, purslane, foxtail grass and wild grapes.

-I highlighted at least 3 books about gardening or foraging.
-Some of the vegetables we grew this year were:  red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, broccoli, brown potatoes, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, watermelons, peppers fooled ya, red peppers, green peppers, yellow hot peppers, yellow zucchinis, green zucchinis, eggplants, green, yellow and purple beans, peas, carrots, purple carrots, lettuce, radishes, beets, butternut squash, pumpkins, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb.
-Herbs we grew:  oregano, dill, basil, coriander/cilantro, garlic chives, regular chives, lemon basil and citronella.
-Foods we picked:  apples and blueberries. 



Start of the season...

Here's to more great posts, more foraging, more recipes, more spotlights on great businesses and loads more surprises!

Keep an eye out for this year's first contest!!!

Thanks again for reading and tell all of your friends...tee hee..