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WellPreserved turns 2 today.

More than 800 posts and 730 days of consecutive posting.  We became bloggers while I slept (the story of our origination was here) and it’s safe to say that the idea for this blog is only a few hours older than the blog itself.

Thank you for being a part of the journey.  I am especially thankful for all who add comments and make this a two-way dialogue – getting people talking has been the toughest part of the blog without question.  We have long hoped that this would become more of a gathering place of thought and people and we’ve seen some tastes of that this year.

Visits to the site have been humbling.  Today will mark the 120,000 view of the site this year (up from 41,000 last year).  I had thought that 100,000 would be a difficult stretch goal to hit.  This doesn’t include the several hundred of you who subscribe to our daily musings.  Thank you all for your visit and participation.

WellPreserved continues to be a hobby.  It`s one that sees me often waking up at 5AM to participate in (something I would have laughed about when we started).  We`ve met a lot of people that we adore, been fortunate to share some great stories and learn a lot and it has helped Dana`s graphic design business find some great projects to work on.

Pimp your Preserve was also a really fun event that has inspired some Holiday gifts around the world.  Love the participation we got from those who jumped in on the fun, added to the comments or simply voted.  With less than 12 hours left in the voting there was a 3-way tie for first place.  It`s a staple that`s likely to continue next year.

We participated in our first event this year – and cooked for more than 800 people at the Brickworks Slow Food Picnic.  We have long wanted to participate in more events – trying to balance limited time in the day with this desire has also proven to be a challenge.  We`ll see what this year has in store.

We had our first published articles appear in Edible Toronto (click on the Preserving tab above to see the 3 of them).  This was a real thrill for us and a giant thankyou to Gail for including us.

We`ve been fortunate to have had several other publishing projects this year.  As those books (written by others) are released, we`ll share some more details.

A new format for posts will launch on January 1.  It`s a minor change – posts on the home page will only show a preview with a `click to read more`option.  This will allow you to scan the homepage for things you are interested in – and hog less space for those using RSS feeds for subscribing.  It`s a minor tweak that I believe will allow you to easily determine what you want to read and feel less like it`s being forced on you or hogging your screen.

We have some lose plans for the year ahead.  Both of us have a few things we`d really like to do `to`the blog (I`d really like to make navigation and finding things far easier and Dana has some design ideas) but time will tell.  The truth is that we`re not sure where this journey goes – and haven`t been too concerned with that.  We also have some ideas for articles and regular features that we`d like to bring to you.

Coming up with topics continues to be a challenge.  We continue to serve our central theme of `conscious eating`and preserving food, culture, tradition and the importance of food at the table.  My favorite part of the blog continues to be meeting people (digitally and physically) who are on similar journeys.

We`d love your ideas for columns, articles, posts, requests for recipes or general direction (including constructive criticism) to make this a better place.

In the meantime, it`s time to find me a piece of cake…