An Orange Cream Hershey’s Kiss to everyone, as we tick off some happy milestones (feel free to jump to review of Taxim below if this insider stuff isn’t interesting): first off, the new podcast about La Quercia just passed 1000 views after about two weeks of being publically viewable.  And it’s chugging right along, so I expect it to be one of the more widely picked up and viewed in the end.

The first of the There Will Be Pork videos just passed 1000 too, and the second one is almost there.  (I knew those would draw a smaller audience because many would be turned off by the meatcutting and slaughter footage, but it’s satisfying that they’ve finally reached that milestone, or will shortly.)

And not too long ago, the urban foraging podcast passed an astounding 6000, which so far as I can tell makes it the most-watched piece of online food video journalism anybody in Chicago has done, especially impressive in that it’s just little old me and most of the others have the backing of some larger media outlet.  (Big big thanks to the many media outlets who have supported me even though I’m not in house, especially my most constant supporters Mike Sula and Kate Schmidt at the Reader, Helen Rosner at Menu Pages, Chuck Sudo at Chicagoist and Michael Morowitz and Rob Gardner at The Local Beet.)

All in all, that means Sky Full of Bacon is closing in on 20,000 views in its first year, which if not beyond my wildest dreams, is certainly firmly among them. Also highly encouraging is the fact that the videos keep steaming along; they don’t die off in interest after a month or two.  In fact, as planting season came round again and interest in Earthboxes and that kind of container gardening continues to boom, the very first podcast, How Local Can You Go?, popped up again and has drawn about 25 new views a week.  That’s really motivating to me, knowing that these things have a life that just keeps on running.

Here’s the ten podcasts so far ranked by views to date on Vimeo (each one also has a certain 100-ish number of iTunes views, but this is the easy way to track actual viewings by actual people):

1. 07: Eat This City (6,086)
2. 03: The Last Brisket Show (3,344)
3. 01: How Local Can You Go? (1,752)
4. 04: A Head’s Tale (1,462)
5. 02: Duck School (1,056)
6. 05: There Will Be Pork pt. 1 (1,020)
7. 10: Prosciutto di Iowa (1,006)
8. 05: There Will Be Pork pt. 2 (991)
9. 08: Pear-Shaped World (888)
10. 09: Raccoon Stories (737)
(to see them, click Video Podcasts in Categories at right)

Thanks to all who have participated, supported, and last but not least, watched and enjoyed.

P.S. Dozens of you have asked about the Sky Full of Bacon totebag I’m seen holding below in the post about the Printers Row Lit Fest. Dozens? Okay, so the actual number was zero, but anyway. Since it’s farmer’s market season, what could be cooler than a bag from your favorite food podcast? Get them here.