When I first started this blog back in 2009, I had no idea if anyone would even read it. I wasn’t exactly sure what I would blog about, though gardening and food were two things that came to mind. I generally blog about things that interest me, and things I think my readers might also find interesting. But what do my readers like to read? One way to find that out is to look at the site stats periodically, something WordPress makes pretty easy to do. So here’s a summary of the most-visited pages here in 2015.
When I first decided to try infusing coffee grounds in oil, I had no idea it would prove to be one of my most-visited posts of all time. Coming in at the #1 visited post for 2015 is Coffee Infused Oil. I had visions of using it to make soap, lip balm, and lotions. We’ve made a hand soap with it, though I haven’t posted the recipe here yet. And I’ve used it in lotions, though I haven’t really settled on a recipe for that either. But my favorite thing to do with the coffee oil is make Coffee Lip Balm with it.
coffee infused olive oil
Coming in at #2 for the year is my recipe for making Vitamix Tomato Sauce. Our high-speed Vitamix blender has changed the way we make tomato sauce and other tomato products for sure. This isn’t really a recipe as much as it is a technique, and I find it has saved me countless time in the kitchen turning our homegrown tomatoes into sauce, paste and ketchup.
using Vitamix to puree tomatoes
The #3 most visited post in 2015 is a recipe for French Green Clay soap. My wife and I started making soap not long after we started blogging. This is still one of my favorite soap recipes, and we have used it with other clays and EO’s to make a number of soaps, including a couple we made in the last month or so.
French Green Clay soap
Coming in at #4 is my recipe for making Homemade Paprika. If I had known how easy it was to make paprika at home, I would surely have been doing it years ago! I’ve had fun the last few years experimenting with different varieties of peppers. And I’ve also discovered that using Smoked Peppers makes a lovely smoked paprika too.
Homemade Paprika
And #5 for the year is Dehydrating Garlic. We love our garlic here at Happy Acres, and dehydrating is a great way to preserve it for later use. You can also turn the dehydrated pieces into garlic powder, which is what I do with a lot of ours.
dehydrated garlic
Rounding out the top ten for 2015 were Coffee Lip Balm, From Freezer To Fork: Squash, Basic Fermented Hot Sauce, Sourdough Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake, and Easy Refrigerator Pickled Garlic. It is interesting to note there is not a single gardening blog post anywhere in the top ten, though How Hardy Is Lettuce? came in at #11 and Growing Eggplant In Containers was #14.
I hope you have enjoyed this recap of some of what my blog visitors have been reading this past year. Thanks for all your comments, emails and blog visits, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of our adventures and experiences in the coming year. And let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the best in 2016!