When Blogs Shift (It's the Whey of Things)

-You may see and hear a lot more about the above. Photo by Elise Bauer, because I left my camera at a friend's house goddammit.-

I love milk. I really love it.

As a child I never drank soda and I still don't. I drank enough water to stay alive, and juice was never my thing. However, I loved milk. Loved it. I went through gallons of it like I would win a prize. Much to my parents dismay they had to buy three gallons a week just so that they would have some for their breakfast since I drank so much of it.

When it came to cheese it was even worse. I would take down whole blocks of cheddar the way packs of starving wolves devour snow rabbits in the middle of winter. Brie, a slower cheese, the lagger in the herd, was always easy prey. Crackers were my weapon of choice but I was more than happy to use my bare hands in what always became a savory unsavory scene.

Now that I'm older the obsession had grown. Have you noticed? The cheese profiles are becoming more prolific here, like moldy veins in a wedge of Stilton. I've been gathering information and breaking it down like lactose into lactic acid during the acidification process in cheesemaking.

Want to know how I made that comparison? I've been reading about cheese like a crazy person. "Culture" magazine, The Cheese Chronicles, Cheesemonger, not to mention everything by Janet Fletcher and Max McCalman. I've been devouring the information, not to mention a lot of cheese.

As such, you may notice a small shift in focus at Vanilla Garlic. Not a radical shift, but a shift nonetheless. But then again, that's the normal progrssion of blogs as I see it. This blog started as a restaurant review blog, then it was a cupcake blog, then a story blog, and now? Well, now it's all of those and more, with a bit of extra focus on cheese and everything that concerns cheese.

Is this a smart move? I don't know, but it's a move I need it to be. I love that people come to my blog to be informed and entertained, but before I can write for any of you I have to write for myself. The blog wouldn't be interesting if my own passion and interest wasn't invested in it.

Shifts in blog focuses are normal, but often don't happen enough or when they should. We're always afraid of losing our readers or losing comments. And it's true. You do. You will. I will. But after so long doing the same old thing can get tiring. However, the people who like your style and voice will follow you. At least, that's what I hope. I may lose some readers, but the way I see it I'll also gain new ones.

Furthermore, isn't the chance of exploration, education, entertainment, and enlightenment worth the risk? I think so.

You'll still find the occasional cupcake, a crazy story or two (I'm still an utter gravity well for crazy people), and the random self-reflective post like this one right here. It will just be intersperesed with bits and pieces about cheese as I so discover them.

Anyways, I hope that you don't mind and I hope you enjoy.

I'd love to hear you comments, ideas, and concerns. Not just on the cheese thing, but about the idea of changing the focus of your blog too. What do you think the motivations and consequences are? I think it's a topic not discussed a lot within the blogging community, especially food blogging where we feel we really have to lock ourselves into a niche in order to stand out. What can change do to a blog?