Happy New Year! And a look back on 2012.

Happy New Year and God bless you in 2013! I’m looking forward to 2013 (and will be talking about that more on Friday’s podcast)!

Please join me — just a few moments — in a look back on what’s happened at GNOWFGLINS in 2012… Maybe there’s something you missed, or something you want to revisit.

Without a doubt, the most popular post here in 2012 and ever, the expose Amish Butter… Really? drew 200 comments and hundreds of social media shares! What do you think — is this really Amish butter? The answer is here.

My first print book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Fermenting Foods, came out in March (or was it April?). The book is doing well. Thank you for your reviews on Amazon and your support!

From May through December, and continuing on just a little longer, our Wednesday GAPS series has covered a lot of ground: from the basics, to recipes, to personal testimonies that’ll have you jumping for joy or spilling tears, to ideas, to issues like traveling and supplementary therapies… See all the GAPS series posts here.

Seasonal Recipe Round-Up — from April through August, every two weeks, we discussed a seasonal item and you linked up dozens of recipes: chard, spinach, rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries, snap peas, cucumbers, berries, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini. I know we’ve all bookmarked those link-ups for next year when the bounty hits again. 😉 This series will start again come spring.

In early June I shared that I decided to sell our milk cow, Gracie. It was a tough decision and I appreciate your supportive comments — no doubt the most loving support I have received for a life’s event in a long time. I think you’ll be glad to know that I haven’t regretted the decision to let her go. Gracie’s new owner, Joe from Wholesome Family Farm, shared that she was among the most stubborn cows he’d ever had! She has since been put down, but not because of stubbornness, because she experienced a fatal case of bloat. We continue to get — and enjoy! — real milk from Wholesome Family Farm.

I made a quick trip to Arizona in June to get help with a software implementation, and I got to see so many dear GNOWFGLINS friends at dinner one evening! Thanks to everyone who came out to bless me! I’m hoping to be selected to attend a conference in Arizona in March, and if I get to go, I would like to schedule another event with all of you. Stay tuned! (And say your prayers — I still have to be selected.)

Drawing nearly 50 comments on the blog post, clearly you found this experience interesting, too! We hired the local mobile butcher to process our first home-grown grass-fed beef, and this post shares all the details of how it went down (graphic heavy).

Launched in August , and now including 16 episodes, the Know Your Food with Wardee podcast has been downloaded 1000s of times and is enjoyed by many. I enjoy it, too! I love answering your questions, and interviewing dear and interesting people. Stay tuned for lots more in 2013 — including this Friday’s episode to help you start the new year right.

Many delicious recipes added this year, including the Walnut-Mint Chocolate Coconut Candy pictured. Browse all the recipes here, starting with the most recent (a quick way to catch up if you’ve missed any).

This year, our Down Home Farm Tours series has featured…. 18 beautiful and inspiring farms! People are growing and doing all kinds of things (both big and small) on their farms and homesteads, and I feel truly privileged to share in this.

By the way, we’re drawing to the end of this series unless more we get more entries. I know that it’s winter and you might think there’s not much to show, but let me encourage you to share your farm as it looks now. It would be fun to see farms in a new light!

We got into traditional food prepping in 2012, and the “A Year’s Supply of Food” thank-you video (and accompanying PDF) proved to be very popular with members and non-members alike!

Sneaking in at the tail end of 2012 (just the other day), I invited many of you by email to join the new free membership at GNOWFGLINS. This membership is free and contains 5 mini-lessons from the online classes.

We added two new classes to GNOWFGLINS in 2012 — Fundamentals II and Real Food Kids. 2013 will bring Dehydrating. And Lord willing, we’ll add another class in the Fall of 2013. Things never slow down around here! Thanks for being a part — you make this fun for all of us!

Three more eBooks entered the line-up this year: Fundamentals II, Lacto-Fermentation, and Real Food Kids. These eBooks combine all the print materials of an online class into a single download. Use an eBook with an online class –or– for independent, off-line study. Discounted eBook bundles are also available. (All purchases during January 2013 include a free Skillet Dishes eBooklet that contains 10 easy, delicious, one-dish meals.)

And just because I love this picture, here’s the “real” view of our family Christmas photo! The official view is here. 🙂

Whew! What a year. I’m sure I missed some things, so…

What would you add? What would you like to see at GNOWFGLINS in 2013?

My family and I pray God blesses YOU abundantly in 2013!