Exactly three years ago, I started this blog. But, before that, I already had my web sites up.  The main reason that I got on the web because of my Farmstead Egg Cookbook. I hoped that having a web site devoted to the book would help it to sell and stay in print. It’s a little book, easy to miss spine-out on the shelf of a bookstore; I’d hoped that a web site would give it more presence. It’s a gem of a book – my editor, Elizabeth Beier, and her staff at St. Martin’s went all out with three-color text and full-bleed photographs. I was allowed to take charge of the photos (often handed to an art director, not the author), and hired Ben Fink, who came to my house and photographed my cooking and my hens. When done, it was exactly the book I’d imagined.

The food writer, Irena Chalmers, once said that cookbooks have “the shelf-life of clotted cream.” The Farmstead Egg Cookbook had a run a bit longer than that, but I found out yesterday that it is being remaindered, meaning it is going out-of-print. All copies in stock have been sold to a discount house. It’s the reality of the business. Very few books stay in print. Still, it’s always a sad day for the author. Anyway, if you’ve been putting off getting a copy for yourself, do it now. There are still a few in the stores and on Amazon.

Of course, one thing leads to another and many good things have come of my little book. One of them is this blog. Three years! Has anyone out there been with me from the beginning? Although the initial reason for the blog is gone, now there is a new one. Because of Tillie Lays an Egg, I have a growing community of readers that includes librarians, teachers and children. 

As an anniversary gift I am giving you a preview of my next web endeavor – GoatCam! Two Miniature Nigerian Dairy Goat brothers will be coming to Little Pond Farm in about 2 months. They were born this week at the Village Haven Farm. Here they are only 15 minutes old. Exciting isn’t it?