Well Preserved

Today marks the third anniversary (and beginning of our fourth year) of the day I slept in and the blog was born (the complete story on the birth of our website was told back in 2009).  I often wonder what would have happened if I didn`t sleep in that day and if this project would have happened otherwise.

I spent some time yesterday reflecting of the day before our third anniversary – neither of us had considered launching a blog and would have laughed if you would have suggested that the next day would launch 3-years of daily posting.

I really want to share thanks to those of you who read, share and comment.  The last year has been really special to us and it wouldn`t happen without the support of the community the community here.  Thank you for your support and involvement.

Some of the major accomplishments from last year:

• Our first solo-events (there will be a LOT more announced in the next week or two).
• Our second-year cooking at the Evergreen Brickworks Slowfood picnic.
• Our first appearance in cookbooks.
• Our first appearance in (multiple) newspapers and other media (including CNN`s Etocracy)
• Our first kids-preserving workshop
• An overwhelming response to Pimp-That-Preserve 2011 – both from people sharing their entries and the number of voters we’ve had.
• The soft-launch of our online store and our first shipments of posters and art.

I think the one thing that gets me most excited is the Facebook group – we had avoided it for a long time, concerned it would add a lot of work and dilute the messages we were trying to share.  What we`ve found is the opposite – because people are on Facebook more than checking a blog like this, the conversation is more fluid and the feeling of community real.  It is the space where people interact with each other, share tips and all sorts of passion around food, cooking, preserving and more.  There is nothing more exciting about this project than seeing people engage with each other and trying recipes and sharing feedback to us and others; where writing becomes action.

That community has grown from 200 people to almost 3,000 in the last year – again, thanks to all of your sharing, commenting and excitement for these topics.

If I was to be greedy enough to have a birthday wish it would be a simple request: What would you like to see from Well Preserved in the future?  We`re open to all ideas and will do our best to incorporate as many as we can…

Happy Birthday to YOU – the community that really is Well Preserved…