Summer 2015 has been perfect here in New England. Mother Nature granted us some great weather – perfect for a vacation! Recently, my dear friend Susan (you might recognize her as my “Chicken Guru”), invited us for a Farmgirl road trip, just us girls and the kiddos (our hubbies stayed home to work and pet/chicken sit). Since I’ve never been North past Boston, Massachusetts, I was especially excited to see another part of New England! Continue reading
My husband and I dream of owning a camper, someday driving across the USA. Recently, I met a special glamper and “Sisters on the Fly” member who did just that with her husband. Now, she’s traveling alone, on a special mission, carrying on her husband’s legacy of love.
My husband and I dream of owning a camper, someday driving across the USA. Recently, I met a special glamper and “Sisters on the Fly” member who did just that with her husband. Now, she’s traveling alone, on a special mission, carrying on her husband’s legacy of love.
Since January, I’ve been training to become a Certified Master Gardener. Currently a “Master Gardener Intern”, I’m amazed how much more I’ve learned, gardening since age seven. Learning about the diagnostic aspect has been my favorite – like “plant CSI”, identifying diseases, bugs and other issues.
Gardening’s long been in my blood – a need to be outside and in earth. As any gardener can attest, sometimes things aren’t always perfect. We’ve had a late season, a wet spring, and a ‘buggy’ summer. I’ve noticed more, ahem, “imperfections” in my garden, appreciated more breathtaking beauty outside than inside any art museum, and also considered that invaders from outer space had landed on some of my plants.
My mom (left) on her 7th birthday.
My mom recently celebrated a birthday. In her seventies, she is still always stylish, with impeccable hair and makeup, and known for her big, bright, beautiful smile. It’s not easy living so far from family, and I so often wish I could just drive down the road to see my mother, or bring her a bouquet of flowers from my garden. When her birthday rolled around, I couldn’t wait, because I recently found the perfect gift for her…something I have been searching for her for decades.
Gradually, I started feeling very “off”. Symptoms multiplied as weeks wore on. I’d have the will to be active, but physically couldn’t keep up. We were worried. Would I ever feel like myself? Was there something doctors hadn’t found?
I’m blessed that I’ve been relatively healthy my entire life. I had typical 1970’s childhood illnesses like strep throat and chicken pox, and was only in the hospital at age thirty when my daughter was born. I’ve always eaten healthy and exercised. Five years ago, inspired by MaryJanesFarm, I went completely organic. I avoid processed foods and alcohol, don’t smoke, and come from “good stock”. During my twenties and thirties I remained healthy, aside from nagging respiratory illnesses that stopped after going organic. I’m hardly sick, bouncing back quickly without antibiotics. I’m active, a “busy bee”. That’s how I realized something wasn’t right. Gradually, I started feeling unable to do everything I wanted to. More and more, I’d fall short finishing chores, frequently feeling fatigued. Often it felt like I was “coming down with something”, but never would. I was tired all the time, knowing something was wrong.
Because we compost and recycle, our household generates little trash. My compost bin is great; my plants love the “garden gold” produced! However, living in New England, we weren’t composting year round. What to do? Compost inside…with vermicomposting! It’s really worthwhile, and simple to do.
With spring’s late arrival, I guessed we would bounce directly into summer-like weather! I went from having my wood stove ablaze to turning on the A/C – which we don’t usually touch until July – in a span of just days. I’m not complaining, I love the warmth! In addition to gardening and all the good things that come with warmer weather, we crave ice cream! My family loves it…and I’ve always dreamed of making ice cream at home. But would a vintage ice cream maker I purchased work or be a disaster?
Finally! After a freezing winter, the Northeast is thawing out and greening up. There are signs of life! Our kids were treated to a nice week-long spring break from school. (With so many snow days, we thought that might not happen). When Mother Nature finally gives us a break, it’s amazing how quickly things go from “drab” to “fab” in the East!
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
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