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“
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
”
~ Mark TwainDebbie Bosworth
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.’”
Column contents © Deb Bosworth. All rights reserved.
Being a farmgirl is not
about where you live,
but how you live.Rebekah Teal
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.
Column contents © Rebekah Teal. All rights reserved.
“
Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away once in awhile to climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods, to wash your spirit clean.
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~ John MuirCathi Belcher
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.”
Column contents © Cathi Belcher. All rights reserved.
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Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
”
~ Anthony J. D’AngeloDori Troutman
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.
Column contents © Dori Troutman. All rights reserved.
Shery Jespersen
Previous Ranch Farmgirl,
Oct 2009 – Nov 2013Wyoming cattle rancher and outpost writer (rider), shares the “view from her saddle.” Shery is a leather and lace cowgirl-farmgirl who’s been horse-crazy all of her life. Her other interests include “junktiques,” arts and crafts, glamping, collecting antique china, and cultivating mirth.
Mary Murray
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.”
Column contents © Mary Murray. All rights reserved.
Farmgirl
is a condition
of the heart.Alexandra Wilson
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!
Column contents © Alexandra Wilson. All rights reserved.
Libbie Zenger
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
June 2010 – Jan 2012Libbie’s a small town farmgirl who lives in the high-desert Sevier Valley of Central Utah on a 140-year-old farm with her husband and two darling little farmboys—as well as 30 ewes; 60 new little lambs; a handful of rams; a lovely milk cow, Evelynn; an old horse, Doc; two dogs; a bunch o’ chickens; and two kitties.
René Groom
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
April 2009 – May 2010René lives in Washington state’s wine country. She grew up in the dry-land wheat fields of E. Washington, where learning to drive the family truck and tractors, and “snipe hunting,” were rites of passage. She has dirt under her nails and in her veins. In true farmgirl fashion, there is no place on Earth she would rather be than on the farm.
Farmgirl spirit can take root anywhere—dirt or no dirt.
Nicole Christensen
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”.
Column contents © Nicole Christensen. All rights reserved.
Paula Spencer
Previous Suburban Farmgirl,
October 2009 – October 2010Paula is a mom of four and a journalist who’s partial to writing about common sense and women’s interests. She’s lived in five great farm states (Michigan, Iowa, New York, Tennessee, and now North Carolina), though never on a farm. She’s nevertheless inordinately fond of heirloom tomatoes, fine stitching, early mornings, and making pies. And sock monkeys.
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Like you I fall for my husband and tomorrow is our 14th wedding anniversary. It is my second marriage, the first left me with three little girls to raise on my own. Then came along this awesome man that married me and moved into a house that included 3 preteen and teenage girls. We are now grandparents of 6 and I fall for those grands harder than anything. They make me smile more than I have ever smiled my whole life. I am enjoying their childhood more than I could enjoy my daughters childhood. I was a farm girl growing up, lived 30 years in the city and am now back to the country life and am settling in. I have a dozen chickens that are laying now and one has become a sweet pet. We are gardeners,were even in the city, and you are right it does take a lot of time to put those fruits of your labor up. But it is so worth it. Happy Fall!
hi,why didn,t you just make chow chow?I absoulyely love chow chow,it is great on a sandwitch or with brown beans,and fryed catfish dinner.Did you put cinnimon in your jelly?wondering,I think I would of added some hot peppers and served with with meat like lamb,maybe,or with a Mexican dish.I had to laugh,fallen from grace,or fallen for grace,made my day so much better today,thanks,I am haveing a wonderful fall too!carol
This summer I made tomato sauce. It took about 45 pounds of tomatoes to make 6 pints. I kept thinking, how is this worth it. It isn’t simple or inexpensive at all! Last night my daughter called to tell me that they had eaten a jar of the spaghetti sauce that I had canned and that our 17 month old grandson Jack hadn’t spoken throughout the entire meal, he was too busy eating! This daughter (who was raised on Air Force Bases, not the farm) who will not eat the eggs from our chickens, talked about how fresh the sauce tasted. She loved it! My attitude about canning changed in a moment! I can’t wait till next summer to can some more!
Great post, Rebekah,
MaryJane recently published a green tomato chow-chow recipe in her Everyday Organic column, here: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/50469260-80/green-tomatoes-tomato-chow.html.csp
I’ve made it and it’s WONDERFUL. Great with meat, hot dogs, on hamburgers, etc…but The Boy and I have just been eating it out of the jar on crackers with a smear of cheese. Deliciously mustardy and still with plenty of crunch, even after cooking.
Have fun!
Gen
(MJF’s "Urban Homesteader")
I fall for my husband and kids every day I am blessed with their presence.I also fall for everything in the world around me, the beauty of the ocean I look out on everyday,my amazing garden that feeds my soul and my tummy,the little birds that come to the feeders everyday and so many other wonderous and simple things in this world.
I also fall for writing,beautiful words strung together to give you a small peak into someones soul.Thank you for sharing.
You are so right about slowing down while cooking. I think that’s why I like cooking so much. You have to stop, and carefully read the instructions, and then follow the instructions one by one, and then you will have made something great! I think the way we approach cooking is a good way to approach life. Slow down, follow the steps you need to accomplish the goal. Don’t think about too much other than what you are doing at each step and enjoy each step as you take it. Enjoy cutting those tomatoes! Then at the end you have a yummy dish, or a satisfying life, to share with those you love.
Rebekah, you can line a big flat box with newspaper and lay the green tomatoes in there and cover with another layer of newspaper. Check every day or two and you can get some of the tomatoes to ripen and turn red. Not as great as ripening on the vine, but better than having too many green ones. Thanks once again for the wonderful post.
I love fall and the season of change. I am also loving it getting dark earlier, and coming home and falling into family time we all tend to slow our life down just a bit.I also am one who loves to cook and i do love to take my time and enjoy the process and the result of a good meal. I being a single Mom love having my special time with my children make every moment count they pass so fast!
Set them out in one layer in a cool dark room and you’ll have tasty ripe ones maybe even until christmas.
kids are almost grown and I’m not so necessary any more so I went to A WITO event for women at a state park and lake. I had forgotten what the season change looked like. wow. I learned hitching and driving a Clysdale, fly fishing, wool processing and spinning. I’m alive and excited again. I may live in the city but there is a lot a farm girl can do here.Life is gonna be different, even in the same old house.
Im a 24 yr old & my husband 23,we got married as teenagers & for our fifth anniversary this august. We decided it was time to start trying for little ones. Im very excited to see what parent hood has to bring as a little scared to be a young mom. I hope the changes that you experience, grace me too. I love the farm girl movement and everything about it. I love vinegar on my hands, dirt under my fingernails and the feel of yarn in between my fingers. I can’t wait to start my family fresh with a new lifestyle. Im also doing my best to share it amongst my young friends & co-workers. I wish my world was organic.
Thank you for sharing with us !
I agree with you! I wish they’d leave the time alone. I fall for my grandkids over and over again. I can’t wait to spend some time with them over the holidays! Thanks for the blog!