Wait, what? Happy Birthday? Shouldn’t I be saying Happy New Year? Well, yes, that too. But guess what? Today is the 1st birthday of this little blog. One year ago today I sat down (in the exact same place I’m sitting now) and did the first necessary steps for starting Grow Forage Cook Ferment. I knew practically nothing about starting a blog and had to get the basics down pretty darn quick, but I had a huge willingness to learn. One year later and I’m amazed by how far I’ve come, but I’m still learning day by day. One thing that has stayed the same is my passion for growing and foraging your own food and medicine, permaculture, natural health and herbalism, cooking from scratch, and fermenting in every way possible.

I also have some new and great things on the horizon! You may have seen my new Coco’s Herbals Etsy shop and Facebook page, but I have plans to start a whole new blog titled Coco’s Herbals that will be all about herbalism and natural health. It’s not up and running just yet, and it may be a few months until it is, but you guys will be the first to know!

Now, here’s what has been going on around here the past couple of weeks. Of course there was the holidays, and we got a white Christmas (and then some!)

Gorgeous, but this is a lot of snow for our area! It’s fun to look at out the window, but not so fun to drive in. We’re getting some sunny, but very cold, days now, which is nice for a change. Cosmo the kitten thought the snow was pretty cool…

But never wanted to stay out in it very long. He really likes his new bed he got from Santa.

Christmas night we were up making new lip balm flavors for Coco’s Herbals, Vanilla Lavender and Cocoa Mint. Isn’t that what everyone does on Christmas?

Then we got them all labeled and ready to ship out. I am also looking into getting them sold in shops locally here in Southern Oregon.

Got some amazing Meyer lemons in the mail from a friend in Texas. They are such a treat!

I used a couple of those lemons in a marmalade I made with a couple of friends. This was the first time I’ve ever made marmalade and it turned out great! I might do a post on it in the near future.

And these cold winter days call for a little bit of homemade spicy chai, one of my favorite hot drinks of the season!

Now for a little fun, here are my very first two posts I wrote when I started. These seem like a world away to me now:

• A Learning Curve
• Grow in Winter Part 1: Herbs

And here are my top 5 posts from the past year, in order.

• How to Make a Gallon of Mead
• How to Make Calendula Cream
• How to Make an Herbal Salve
• How to Make Elderberry Mead
• How to Make Hard Cider Part 1: Brew it

This means you guys like homemade booze and DIY herbal products, which makes me so happy! There will definitely be more of that in the coming year, along with some cool new stuff as well. Thanks for all the support this past year, let’s keep on keepin’ on!