Lately, we’ve had so much snow and ice, it’s unbelievable! Schools have been closed here eight times the last few weeks due to weather, and most families are getting out only when absolutely necessary. What’s a mom to do? Create cozy meals of comfort food!
New England has been hit with one of the worst winters anyone can remember. Sure, we are used to snow and ice, but not THIS much at one time! We’ve been hit with five storms the last four weeks, with more to come. Schools have been closed, roads are challenging, and everyone’s getting tired of the cold (even though it is only January). How do you keep a sunny disposition when winter is being so wicked?
The last few weeks it seems everyone I know has been buzzing about their New Year’s resolutions. I’ve even seen celebrities on television and in magazines pledging to stick to their New Year’s resolutions. Let me be honest and straight with you: I don’t like New Year’s resolutions. This year I have a better idea…
One of my all-time favorite songs (from one of my most favorite movies) is played frequently during the holidays: “My Favorite Things”. It always brings to mind a long list of personal “favorite things”. Some are seasonal, such as seashells, pumpkins, and snowmen. Others are functional like teapots, and cake plates. When I see a cookie, it’s a cookie, but put it on a footed cake plate and my heart skips a beat! Often, we women find we need to have more than one of our “favorite things”. A girlfriend once told me that if you have two of something, it’s a “couple”, but if you have three, it’s a “collection”. Aprons are another favorite for me. They make me happy. When I’m home, I’m wearing one, especially since my favorite place is the kitchen. I knew the Farmgirl Sisterhood was for me as soon as I saw the Henrietta logo of a chicken with her apron! I can never have too many aprons! I guess that makes me a collector…
.jpg)
Every year, I’m faced with a dilemma. A kid inside when it comes to all things Christmas, I find my adult self more Scrooge-like when it comes to the mess associated with the focal point of decorations: the Christmas tree. The question that comes up every December: do we pull up the artificial tree from the basement or get a real one?
I guess you can call me sentimental, keeping cards and letters, remembering gifts I’ve received and who sent them, and remembering special dates. This week, I am celebrating an anniversary. However, it’s not what you may think….
Hello from Connecticut! My name is Nicole, and I am thrilled to be your “new” Suburban Farmgirl! Many of you know me through the Farmgirl Connection chatroom. It’s a blessing to have gotten to know so many fine “sisters” through that wonderful avenue. It makes this great big world a little bit cozier! As a busy wife and mother in a small suburban Connecticut town, I am also an active member of MaryJane’s Sisterhood, and love get-togethers with my chapter. The Sisterhood and MaryJanesFarm have truly enriched my life, and I look forward to sharing more with you all here.
What’s on my mind? Lately, it’s COOKING. I LOVE to cook. Everyday. For me, the daily meal making is not a chore but a treat, a hobby, and of course, an expression of love for those I get to feed. I would rather cook a great meal than go out to a restaurant.
Thanksgiving is coming up; the marathon of meal-planning, and the Olympics of dinners. Thanksgiving is a time of reflection, when no matter what is going on in our lives we remember our blessings, conjure up thoughts of holidays past, and eat until we burst, calories not being what’s on our minds at the time. Thanksgiving is a time to come together around the table, friends and family. A time when special memories are cultivated. I can’t wait…
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”.
Weekly Blogs and Recipes