With winter gardens mostly in the ground, I had a bit of extra time last week. Because the year was winding down, I spent about an hour reading over the blog content from the last year. Over the course of 2011, our blog's second year in existence, we've grown quite a bit.

We've added 128 posts of interesting content about food politics, water and land use, cooking, and the virtues of chickens as earwig assassins. We started the year with four regular writers, but Rachel and Lowell's recent posts have added two new voices. Our content has gotten longer, more original, and better edited. Through sheer repetition, my photo editing skills have improved from "needs work" to "passable." 

To my knowledge, our blog is unique. For a company blog, we spend relatively little time plugging our product. Our passion is to write about urban farming from a multiplicity of angles. All at once, we aim to be political, practical, and playful. As I read through the last year of our content, I'm proud of the final product. With that in mind, here is a selection of my favorite blog posts from 2011. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

January:

• Jesse argued for better land use in his post, Landscaping with a Purpose.
• Making use of last year’s abundant bok choy harvests, Julia cooked an Asian Noodle Stir-Fry.

February:

• I blogged a bizarre radish variety in Edible Oddities: Rat-Tail Radish.
• Julia curried some cauliflower.

March:

• I quoted the bible and outed myself as a companion planting curmudgeon.

April:

• Dan compared our climate with other Mediterranean cities in his post, Los Angeles the Mediterranean.
• Dan also interviewed Farmscape member Niki Nakayama about her new restaurant featuring Farmscape produce, n/Naka.

May:

• Curious what inspired us to start this business? Jesse described the history of Farmscape’s business model in his History of Farmscape, Part II.
• Jesse meditated further on the history of food production in Los Angeles.

June:

• Farmscape was featured on our local NPR Affiliate, KPCC.
• In a staff favorite blog post, Weston described his struggles with earwigs, as well as his creative pest control methods.

July:

• I described what I learned about Los Angeles by farming it.
• Dan chronicled a Farmscape Milestone: one million gallons of water saved.

August:

• Using Brix testing, I declared Farmscape tomatoes objectively delicious.
• Julia whipped up a gorgeous zucchini ribbon salad.

September:

• Playful as always, Jesse attempted to reboot garden design.
• A Farmscape member saved big bucks on their water bill.

October:

• Julia kicked off her weekend by mixing up some Jalapeno Margaritas.
• In one of his first blog posts, Lowell meditated on germination.
• Dan sought out the best of the best: Gilroy garlic.

November:

• Rachel told the story of her urban farm.
• Jesse blogged his Tedx talk: Urban Agriculture as Quest Narrative.

December:

• Lowell pined for his first love: a trenching shovel.