My inner VirgOCD is pretty chuffed that this new year starts with a full moon on a Monday. 
In my mind that’s a pretty auspicious collection of coincidences that tells me to get off my butt and start some new habits, because as we know, it’s always easiest to start something new at the beginning of a week, month, or year. When all three happen at the same time? JACKPOT!
I begin 2018 with a great head start in the kitchen by way of my collection of home grown and fermented foods. In addition to the thriving sourdough sponge I started several years ago, I regularly make sauerkraut, yogurt, and fermented plant-based cheeses (I chose to remove meat, dairy, and animal products from my diet in 2014).
While I’ve been on an unintended hiatus from MEG, in 2017 I published Plant-Based Boot Camp, a cookbook on which I had worked for three years. It’s a collection of recipes that I am especially proud of because I was able to make some of my all-time favorite dishes even better. There’s a reason I subtitled it “vegan food for people who don’t like vegan food”; these are recipes that are enjoyed by vegans and carnivores alike, and I have tested many of them on some of the most devoted of meat eaters with great results.
In 2018 I am focusing my energy on the home. I will continue my work on the garden spaces to them more fruitful, beautiful, and sustainable while also looking inside (both literally and metaphorically).
When I created My Earth Garden, I envisioned the meaning of phrase in my head including more than just growing food. My Earth Garden is about cultivating a strong, happy, sustainable life, and that means more than what I am growing in the dirt. It includes the seeds that I am planting in my community and in my relationships. It means that I must nurture those around me with as much devotion and care as I dedicate to my plants.
And that’s how I am starting this new year. I wish you health, happiness, and love.