All of us farmgirls have much in common, don’t we? Even though our lives, locale and lifestyles differ, we share some key ingredients.
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Debbie 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.’”
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.
Cathi 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.”
Dori 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.
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.”
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!
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”.
Oh geeze Shery,
Pass the dang hanky over this way would ya? I’m right there with ya on all points… even the comfy slippers part to match my chennile robe! I have found true enrichment and experienced such happy growing pangs since I found Mary Jane and the sisterhood too! A lot has gone into the making and shaping of each and everyone of us farmgirls and discovering MaryJanesFarm just puts the cherry right on top OF OUR farmgirl goodness doesn’t it? Aren’t we all blessed to have " EACH OTHER"?
Thank YOU Shery for this touching and uplifting post today…
If I had to sum it up in one word it would be PERFECT!
LOVE and a big farmgirl hug!
Deb
Shery, Love it! Especially your quote on how we are dumplings in the simmering soup of a busy life! My life is so enriched from the sisterhood, for sure! What a great post. Farmgirl Hugs! Nicole, Farmgirl Sister #1155, Suburban Farmgirl Blogger
Shery: What a lovely way to put it. And you always have JUST the right photos or memorbelia to go with it. I live on the ranch through you. Thanks farmgirl. Bonnie
Sherry,
Your words and photos you always share with us are so original and comforting. I just am in love with your recipe for a farmgirl. Thanks for showing us!
Smiles, Cyndi
Amazing!! I just joined the sisterhood and have been enjoying it so far. But today I was feeling a little woe-ish. This was just what I needed to read today. Thank you for helping me see what I should be aspiring to be, what I already am, and being a great inspiration.
Thank you!!
For those of us who cannot expess our thoughts and feelings in such wonderful words, thanks so very much for sharing.
Got any more clean hankies? I enjoy reading your blog, I look forward to it every week. I could live all summer in that tent!!! Love the pictures you found. Those dolls, guess they look to me like rag dolls, are they in your house, did you make them? Or just found the picture. I had one kind of like them, that a sweet older woman made for me, I gave it to my niece when she got older, to pass on to her daughter. Had yarn hair, and a red checkered dress and a white apron.
Some day some of us out here in blog land just might show up. I lived in Utah for a few years and loved it there. But my family is here in Michigan and my mom passed away a few years ago and my dad’s health hasn’t been so good so I moved back home to take care of him. I plant a few flowers and a few veggies for thats all I have space for. But when you eat those home grown tomatoes you just want to savior them, and cry knowing soon they will be gone and you have to eat those store ones in your salad soon. When I do have to buy them from the store I do let them sit out for awhile and they get less waxy tasting. But you have to do this a few days before you need them.
Thanks Shery for your blogs!
Shery…I am soooo glad we met and I am glad to call you my farmgirl… You fit all the descriptions to a tee and more …God has blessed me with faithful and true friends indeed!
I have enjoyed reading your blog, and past posts as well. It’s nice to read about things going on in other areas, and see these delightful photos. Thanks for sharing!!!
Shery, You’re so sweet…I realized that myself after Joplin, MO had the terrible tornado, that I shouldn’t think of myself so much, your blog is awesome! pass the hankies, carol branum
Now if I could find sisterhood in the forests, cornfields and soybean fields of Indiana. I NEED it!!
Hi Shery, You said it all and I love to read your blogs. Yes, I have found a friend indeed with the Farmgirls. I like to come into your spaces and read about the different things everyone does and I feel a close connection with all the farmgirls. Just love everyone, You brighten my life too. HUGS from this Farmgirl #1020 Needy
Poetic description..beautiful…not everyone understands an "earth girl" . I’m proud to be one and you have described it to a tea.
Beautiful…and out of all the pics (which I LOVE them all) My absolute favorite is the "Out of Africa" tent…..I Love it…
Love you..Love your horses…
Very well done, Sherry. I so enjoyed reading this, you hit the nail on the head. I would love to have some of your photos or know how to find them. Nothing better than being a farm girl. As my Daddy always told me, I have dirty blood just like him. I reckon I was born that way.