Happy Birthday to VFG

VFG turned two this weekend.

I didn’t do much celebrating. I’m celebrated out and ready to get back to my normal routine.

But because this is a 2-year anniversary post, I’m going to note some programming highlights from the last year.

I try to file a post five to six days a week. In ’08, I had 318 posts, up from 221 in 2007.

My number one story of the year had absolutely nothing to do with my favorite topics: food, urban agriculture or sustainable farming.

No, it was a post from April 17, 2008, “Kokomo UFO Mystery Solved.” For some reason, when you type “Kokomo UFO” in to Google, VFG is the number one result. That drove a ton of traffic to VFG, though I doubt many of these ET fans stayed around long. I can tell when the Kokomo UFO is meantioned on the History Channel or on Discovery because my traffic spikes.

I seem to have picked up most of my readers this year from friends and family pass alongs and from an unlikely source, Pastor Joel Osteen. I was excited when Osteen started a Twitter feed and began following me. Even though he hasn’t tweeted since he started way back in November, his Twitter followers have made their way to VFG. Yay!

Much of this blog remains devoted to exploring agriculture in the spirit of discovering ways to support my family’s farm and sustainable farm practices around me. That has largely resulted in a shift in focus here to the Buy Local movement. That includes seeking out and blogging about farmers in my region or who I happen upon when traveling. And it includes seeking out and IDing local manufacturers of toys, jewelry and whatever else being created in my own backyard.

So, for 2009, readers can expect more agritouring and local-centric shopping.

Happy New Year!