We don’t review a lot of blogs here and I’m sure that most reading this post will already know of the one we are sharing today but it’s such an important site that it just can’t be missed.

I first encountered Tigress about 3 years ago.  We were both relatively new to food blogging; I think we were each following less than 50 or 100 people on Twitter.  Tigress was the first person I met electronically from the local food/ preserving community.  When we started this project in 2008 we didn’t know that there was such a thing as food blogging or any form of online community around preserving. 

I suppose that shouldn’t be all that shocking as it was Tigress herself who was fundamental in helping bring many different communities together.  She shared this post in November, 2009 in which she announced her vision for a year-long challenge to preserve.  There would be a different seasonal ingredient every month and participants would have to make a waterbath preserve, post it and send her a link.  She would do a monthly round-up which featured her short review of every post that was up.  The can jam was a phenomenal success – more than 100 participants joined in the challenge which she organized for an entire year without missing a beat.

Back then she had two blogs: Tigress in a Pickle and Tigress in a Jam.  She shared endless recipes for pickling and other preserving including a lot of fermentation and inspiration as she grew many of her own ingredients along the way.  Our feline friend can cook!

Tigress is a pilgrim in the finest of senses.  She grows much of her own food supply (including making her own butter from raw milk which still has me green with envy) and preserves like a fiend.  You’ll find a lot of Mediterranean influence as well as that from the East (as in ‘far’ not ‘maritime’).  Her site is a resource filled with passion.

She’s been working on her new site for the best part of a year – a labour of love which brings both former sites together and into a shared forum.  Her new site is fantastic – a mix of form and function.  Her menu system is fantastic; it expands and collapses and is color coded to easily pick out the pickles or to kick up the jams!  You can also browse each site within the singe site to tickle the fancy you’re feeling.

If you need one more reason to visit her site, I’ll give you two:

• Her awesome post about why she blogs
• What she’s doing to try to make a difference against factory farming

Those two links are what really inspires me about my friend and I really hope you’ll support her site too!

What other sites do you love that should share the love?