Year End Wrap Up

Well here it is Dec 31 and I have a total of 10 posts for the year. Not very prolific, although in my defense I didn't set out to be blogger, rather just needed a place to keep a record of my gardens. But along the way I discovered a number of blogs that appealed to a wide variety of my interests and frankly I'm a much better reader than writer. So here's a list of my latest addiction

Well Preserved ( wellpreserved.ca)Joel and Dana set out to blog about a year's worth of preserving food and other food related issues. They are based here in Toronto and I found out about them through my work with Not Far From The Tree- more on NFFTT later.

Tigressinapickle/Tigressinajam.blogspot.com. Tigress is another blogger who is passionate about preserving food. She has created a CanJam contest that starts tomorrow and Colette and I are signed up! The goal is to do one canning project a month using a designated ingredient and then blog about it. So I am mandated to post at least once a month for the next year.


From the CanJam sign up I discovered Smallmeasure.blogspot.com. Ashley lives in a remote area in North Carolina and writes about things I aspire to do, like raising chickens and bees. Jealous!

Not really a blog but I find many kindred spirits at yougrowgirl.com. Gayla Trail, another Toronto native, has turned a love of gardening into online world where anyone who grows anything ( or dreams of growing anything) is welcome. There's even a fairly active forum where there's no such thing as a dumb question.

Not everything can be about food and gardening so here's my favourite unrelated blogs.

God Stole My Boyfriend (http://godstolemyboyfriend.blogspot.com/)- written by my dear friend as she continues her spiritual journey and obtains her Masters of Divinity. Sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking but always honest and intense.

The Daily Asker (http://thedailyasker.blogspot.com/) In which La Roxy blogs about her goal to ask for at least one thing everyday. Not nearly as selfish as it could be and full of sound advice and thoughtful insight.

My latest passion, at least while the weather is cold, has been genealogy. I stumbled onto Brenda Merriman's blog recently (http://brendadougallmerriman.blogspot.com/) while researching a family name we have in common. The advantage is she's a paid professional and a damn good writer.

Lastly, the aforementioned Not Far From the Tree (http://www.notfarfromthetree.org). Of all the things I was involved with this year I am most proud of this one. Created by Laura Reinsborough to make use of fruit that grows unharvested in the city, NFFTT picked over 8000 pounds of fruit this year that was going to waste and diverted to homeless shelters and soup kitchens. I was one of the volunteers this year and had a great time picking apples, pears and whatever else we could. It was nice to find another activity that got my away from the computer for a change!



So my resolution for 2010, if I believe in such things, is to be a more frequent poster. Not because I think what I write will be all that exciting but in hopes that things I discover along the way will be useful to someone else. And in the words of Ashley, maybe we can all "attempt to craft a good life"

Happy 2010! Now bring on the CanJam!