I have been writing this blog for nine months now, since it was born on the 5th May 2010. An average of 1000 visitors have passed through and hopefully found something worth reading. Reviewing the most popular posts of the last year has given me a few surprises. Here are the top five in order of popularity:

1. Man The Gatherer: The Foraging Instinct.

Inspired by a raspberry picking trip with members of The Durham Fruit Group, I reflected on the anthropological aspect of wild food sorties, the superiority of fresh wild picked raspberries, and even managed to leverage in some comments about why we should all adopt a peaceful plant based diet. This article got “stumbled” by a couple of people which may account for its astronomical viewing stats.

2. Who Is Edward Monkton?

This was intended as a fairly flippant post but it turns out I was not the only person who was curious about the identity of Edward Monkton, the naively drawn proponent of off-the-wall folk wisdom who haunts our greetings cards. This is my most googled post and includes my own attempt at a bit of Monktonography.

3. Foraging Friday: Saffron Milk Caps

This post must have been published just as a lot of people were getting curious about these garishly coloured edible mushrooms. It is the most popular of my Foraging Friday series which will be continuing just as soon as spring starts to put out new growth and make foraging worthwhile again.

4. Milk Monday: Twelve Talking Points

Part of a long running series on all things “Dairy” that has been fueled massively by the terrible threat of the US style zero-grazing cow factory proposed for Nocton in Lincolnshire. Milk Mondays have been about asking if we really want to consume milk and, if we do, then what are the ethics of our consumption habits. I wanted to give consumers some idea of what goes on behind the supermarket shelves. The series grew with a significant helping hand from the folk at the Not In My Cuppa campaign. This post offers a few points for discussion on the dairy industry in Britain.

5. Jazz and Light: Two Things I love

Another fairly rapidly scribbled post that did unexpectedly well. I muse on two of my passions: Jazz and Photography. I love them not just for the aesthetic of the end product but for the path, process, spirituality and philosopythat underpin them. More on both these topics, I hope in 2011.

Many thanks to the people who have read, commented and retweeted in the last year. Happy New Year and all the best to you in 2011.