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”.
Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit. That looks mighty tasty!
My kids will only have homemade cornbread. Long ago I stopped making it from a box when I realized that from scratch wasn’t that much harder. Love your post.
"Hotter than a popcorn fart" which is what it’s been here in Oregon the last few days. This was one of my dad’s favorite sayings on a hot KS day. He passed away this year and alot of his crazy sayings keep popping into my head.
Here goes: "ain’t no little fairy gonna come tap you on your head with it’s wand and make you happy!"
What that means is, happiness comes from inside, not outside! And personally, I think contentment is so much more important than happiness!
"Spend time, not money." After raising two boys our first grandchild is a precious little girl. Of course I am inclined to buy every cute item that I see but since we are retired (as in money is tight) I keep reminding myself to "spend time, not money" because it is what she will remember years later anyways.
Well the other day I said, "I AM DONE – YOU HEAR ME?" I was talking to the boys I watch and my best girlfriend, and I can’t even remember what I was talking about. But my friend turned on her southern voice (She’s from Indiana so it isn’t real) and said, "Stick a fork in her, she is done!" We all started laughing. (I guess you had to be there)
And just before reading this post I sent my Sister an e-mail asking her opinion on something and I said, "I’m drawing a blank." Then I asked, "How does one actually draw a blank?"
And the cornbread – gonna try it. My husbands family is always talking about Aunt Evelyn’s cornbread and how good it was and how she made it for every meal. Mine will never measure up, but I’m still gonna try.
Cindy
When I’m in the garden I am reminded of my mother’s saying, ‘now that’s a tough row to hoe’, referring to a difficult situation. If someone was in a bad mood, they were being ‘owly’ (spelling?). Don’t know where that one came from and when I repeat it, people look at me like they are totally confused! When we used to speak of a couple that didn’t seem to ‘fit’ together in our estimation, my mom would say, ‘you know there’s a lid for every pot’, and then we would laugh.
This is a favorite little ditty that my dad used to say to make us chuckle:
‘It makes me laugh to see the calf run down the path in
a minute and a half to get some grass to wipe his HOO HOO!’
My folks had roots in Kentucky and I guess that might be where some of this came from.
All I know is that losing them both was a tough row to hoe..
Two from my beloved g’mother: "You do that again and I will slap the taste right out of your mouth." And when I was acting "prissy," she’d tell me: "Honey, you may be sweet, but your aren’t made out of sugar and you won’t melt in the rain."
Also, shorten bread is actually shortbread cookies…or that’s what I’ve always been told!
Being from GA as well, my husband is very "cold-natured." Being in one of the hottest areas in the US in my opinion, how is it that you are "cold-natured?" But one of his sayings that he heard which possibly describes how he feels is: "It’s colder than an Alaskan well-diggers a–!" Personally, being in my 50’s, I LOVE the cold!! LOL!
Thanks for the cornbread recipe… I’ve been looking for a good one!
Hi Rebecca,I make Martha Whites White corn bread,I get my bacon greese hot,and use a corn stick pan,and a wedged pan,My mother in law taught me when I was 17 how to cook southern.This is the kind she used,Momma Hallies was always yeller,and when I first saw white corn bread at age 17 I just did,nt know what to think!About sayings around here we say"She thinks shes Miss Aster,or she thinks shes Ms Vanderbuilt"talking about rich girls who think there #%$* does not stink."We don,t like like ritch girls in this neck of the woods,espically ones that think they know it all""I also like the Dorthy Parker quote"{about horitculture/gardening}Your can lead a whore to culture but you can,t teach her to think!"Dorthy Parker was playing scrabble when she said this jokely about herself.{this was a favorite saying of my aunt Dallies who wrote a gardening column for the Carthage Press.She would give talks to groups about gardening and use this quote and the room would roar.We also say "does a bear $%#* in the woods"a lot around here too…read more on my blog {its a dot not a @}Look me up,and please comment OK?Thanks!themofarmersdaughter.blogspot.com,have a great day Becka,Carol Branum,Lamar Mo.
My husband has a favorite saying, "sometimes even a blind hog finds an acorn", meaning he found a way to make the impossible possible.
Speaking of grits and Texas….. I remember once when we were in a restaurant down in Austin, and was sitting next to a man and his young son. The little boy was whining about his breakfast and said, "Daddy, don’t make me eat those bricks".
Grits were a food staple where I was raised (S MS) and sometimes the leftover grits were chilled, sliced & fried to a golden brown and served as a side dish for supper with gravy. They are very good, but I still like my grits and fried eggs with bacon or sausage for breakfast.
Your cornbread recipe sounds great, Rebekah. This week we are making our late summer trip over to the other side of the mountain to Cades Cove, where my sister & I will buy freshly ground cornmeal, that is still ground on the old mill at Pigeon Forge and sold at the park. I will then try your recipe.
I always tell each our son, "Better take good care of yourself cause nobody will do it for you."….
and my personal favorite:
.."SHE who tooteth not her own horn hath it not tooted!"
and for good advice when things seem all but lost:…"Pretend it is a YEAR FROM NOW and you are looking back on this. It will have been resolved (somehow) and life moved on."
How about "kiss my grits!" (From the old show Alice.) I hope you’ll teach us more about them. This northern gal knows nothing about grits. How to buy them, how to cook them, how to serve them. I do make cornbread (from the jiffy mix!)
Love the blog! In response to Cindy and drawing a blank…in dominoes if you draw a tile with no dots, it is referred to as a blank. Therefore, if you draw a blank, you have nothing!
I come from a family that has alot of quarky sayings…as long as I can remember, either my Mom,Grandmom or Great Grandmom had something to say…But my favorite when my five kids were growing up, and they asked for something that was either impossible or never going to happen, I would answer their question with "When pigs fly!!!"…hands down the one I want they to remember is "I’ll love you forever…
Hi, Rebecca! I have always made yellow cornbread and instead of oil, I used butter. It’s also good with a layer of sharp cheese in the middle ( pour in half the batter and layer in grated cheese then pour in the rest of the batter). As my Dad used to say,"so good you wanna hug yourself for eatin’ it!
I’m a northern girl, but I love grits and cornbread. I do like my cornbread sweet!
My husband’s favorite is "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!" spoken when someone’s request was not likely to be granted. My Aunt Edna used to say,"Leave it for the blind man on a fast horse to see." when we’d be housecleaning or such and little bitty smudges remained despite vigorous scrubbing!
I LOVE your blog. I’m making the Hike Inn cookies this week for grandchildren
I grew up in the deep south and ever since I finished reading ‘The Help’ all I can think of (besides praying that I wasn’t a brat) is the cornbread our maid used to make. It was divine and I’ve not really been able to recreate it. I’ll try this one.
Hotter than a popcorn fart? hahahaha! Never heard that one before.
Ever heard this one? Some days Chickens, Some days Feathers!
My momm used to say it a lot when I was growing up…I never really " got it" until later in life… some days you get the whole glorious bird and other days… just feathers…. that’s life in a nut shell…!I’m a south western gal happily transplanted in New England…but my family out west is mostly TEXAN! They have more sayings than you can shake a stick at…They always make you laugh and think!
I just love your writing and I gave you a little shout out over on my blog just yesterday… right along with all the other farmgirl bloggers!
can’t wait to hear more about the shrimp and grits festival!
Deb,
Not my pig, not my farm. As in, not my problem.
More’in one way to break a dog a’suckin’eggs.
About grits, driving home to northern Ohio from Florida once, we stopped somewhere in Georgia for breakfast. I ordered eggs with bacon and toast. Went to pick up my plate and it had a bunch of white stuff on it, I said this wasn’t my order and the super nice lady said,, "thems grits honey, everyone gets a mess a grits." So I learned a lot that morning, mostly I don’t like grits. But I loved the place and the nice lady.
My Mom would say "bread and butter" whenever we walked to the side of a post or whatever, one of us going one way, the other to the other side. Have no idea where it came from, have not heard it from anyone but Mom.
I made the cornbread this weekend. It turned out great! The family gobbled it. I’m following the posts on your other blog. I hope the race goes weel!
Well my family is from East Texas. They have so many sayings; but here are a few I can remember. My grandmother would say when it was raining but the sun was still shinning "The devils beaten his wife again". One she said when I got older and something was upsetting me was "let it lye" as it let it be, most things work themselves out and the Good Lords in control anyway. My very colorful brother says things like "it’s colder than a witches tit-tie" and another thing everyone referred to me as "sister" as my name, I guess because I was the little sister. Oh and I’m sure we all heard this one, when dad would come in to wake me up he’d say, "time to get up the days a wasting", of course this was usually at 5am.
"That’s so good it makes ya want to slap yo mama!" from the 6’8" son of a wonderful petite Southern woman who would lash back: "I brought you into this world and i can take you out!"
Mammy’s little baby loves short’nin’, short’nin’
Mammy’s little baby loves short’nin’ bread.
Put on the skillet,
Put on the led,
Mammy’s going to make a lil’ short’nin’ bread!
Ever wonder why?
Give it a try!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup molasses
1 egg, slightly beaten
Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a well seasoned 10" iron skillet
(An 8×8 baking pan can be substituted).
In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In another small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk.
In a heavy saucepan, stirring the butter and molasses continually, bring it to a boil.
To the flour mixture, stir in the butter and molasses. Add the buttermilk, baking soda and the slightly beaten egg and mix well.
Pour the mixture into the skillet and place it in the oven.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Slice and serve warm or cold with a cool, refreshing glass of milk for a delicious, nutritious treat and, "May you always be as happy as you make others!"
A few years ago, my sister and I found two vintage containers that said "candy" and "nuts". We bought them and added 2 of our own
"ifs" and "Buts"
love it