“Opa”! I first heard that expression in 1976, when my parents took me to the Greek Festival in Houston. I’ll never forget that day; the exciting festival with all the people, dancing, and scrumptious Greek food, handmade by local ladies my family knew. While I wasn’t raised in the Greek church (or speak Greek), my father’s mother was born in Athens, Greece. Though my grandmother’s been gone decades, she’s on my mind as I cook comfort food with the arrival of colder weather, and begin holiday baking, using her treasured recipes.
Sandy 
Nicole Christensen 
Adrienne 
Rosemarie 
Karen(old cowgirl) Montoya 
Carol D 
Joan 
Marge Hofknecht 
carolyn stelle 
Dori Troutman 
Beverly Battaglia 
Betty McTiernan 
Denise 
Alice - Farmgirl #12 
Carleen 
Denise 
CR LAGROUE 
bonnie b 
Deb Bosworth 
Holly Kamal 
Portia 
susan 
Mel H 
Andrea A 
Donna cyr 
Jan Sturgill 
diana henretty 
Nancy 
Diane Loehr 
Dorothy 
Meredith 
Sue Ingle 
Mary Rauch 
Kristen 
Betty 
Ulla Christensen -
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”.
Do you make the Kouluorakia with the bourbon?
Hi Sandy. I do. It just doesn’t taste the same without it. I don’t drink bourbon, but I keep a small bottle in the cabinet just for baking koulourakia. I measure my milk, pouring it a scant shy of the 1/2 cup line. I then add a splash or so of the bourbon, until it is at the 1/2 cup mark (about a tablespoon or so). The milk will look not “quite white” with the addition of the bourbon. Of course the alcohol burns off in the baking, but leaves a nice, delicate flavor. Let me know if you try the recipe! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Love this article! You do look like your grandma :). It is so important that we try to keep history alive for our kids. You are inspiring me to sit and write when my mom comes to visit in a few weeks. BTW, I have spent lots of time in Greece when I was younger. The food brings up happy memories, especially of community :).
Hi Heike…Thank you so much for the compliments! 🙂 Enjoy your visit with your mom. Ask lots of questions. There are so many things I wish I could still ask both of my grandmothers. I have not yet been to Greece, but I really want to visit there someday. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
What wonderful memories you have and great recipes you have inherited! You are blessed. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Hi Adrienne! Thank you…I am so glad you enjoyed this post. Let me know if you try any of the recipes! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Interesting blog and great story about your Grandmother! It is wonderful that you are preserving her stories and recipes for your daughter.
I miss my mother’s Slovak and Polish Holiday Dishes. I will now get out the Slovak cookbook that she gave me and make some of the special dishes this Holiday Season.
Hi Rose! Thank you. I think it is important to preserve family history. It’s so interesting too. One thing I remember years back when Oprah had her show on in the afternoon, she said, “Everyone has a story”. It’s so true, and everyone has a history. Enjoy those special holiday dishes! Thank you for sharing. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Wow, I love getting recipe’s from different people who got them from their Grandparent’s or Aunts or Uncles. it just adds a wonderful flavor to your blog and e-mails. Of coarse we all get to enjoy recipe’s that we other wise may not even have heard of. Thank You and I will try making them this Christmas.
Hugs
Karen
Hi Karen, I love trying all kinds of recipes, too, especially “old” ones. Do you know what the first antique/vintage item I ever purchased was? It’s an old, vintage cookbook. I was waiting for a friend to get off of work, and was poking around the shops in New Hope, PA. There was an antique shop – the kind with everything including the kitchen sink – when I found a Good Housekeeping cookbook from 1942, in mint condition, for a song! It started a vast collection of vintage and antique cookbooks. I also like to try recipes from friends from different cultural backgrounds. Some of the recipes have become “regular” meals at our house! Thanks for reading and sharing. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Love the pictures. Saw the resemblance immediately. Family heritage is so important. And, the recipes sound delicious – I will try them. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Carol, Enjoy the recipes, and thank you so much for “stopping by”! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Thanks for sharing, your family history and the wonderful recipes. I am a genealogist and collect recipes – this is special. God bless.
Hi Joan, A genealogist! How interesting! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Thank you for sharing your grandmother with us. The older I get, the more I wished that I had asked questions of my grandparents when they were alive. Questions about life in the “Old Country” and so on. Years ago I began writing down funny little stories that my dad told me about his father and I’m glad I did. When my kids, nieces, and nephews had come for a wedding, they all read what I wrote and appeared to be very interested. I’ve since taken up scrap booking and I’m so glad that I did. Besides being a very creative activity, it also allows for pausing and remembering those long ago days and cherishing them. Enjoyed your post and I plan to try those little cookies. Have a blessed day!
Hi Marge, thank you for commenting. I, too, wish I could ask my grandparents this or that. My daughter is twelve and at that “funny” age. With homework, extra-curricular activities, and life’s “busy-ness”, I always tell her she needs to pause and call her grand-parents. I always tell her how I would give anything for “just one more conversation” with mine. This past spring, my grand-mother’s last living sister passed away. She had lived a long life, but I felt like I lost a little more of my grandmother, they were so alike, and wished I had called her more often. On the plus side, after “signing” the online memorial for my Great-Aunt, I “met” one of my grand-mother’s nieces who I did not know even existed! We’ve since become close.
How wonderful you are scrap booking your history! What treasures you are creating. And please let me know how your cookies turn out! Enjoy! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
thank you so much for sharing, it’s very important for everyone to know where we came from.
thank you
Carolyn, I agree! Our history plays such a big part of who we are. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Nicole, I love your post! Memories. photographs, and keeping your culture alive!
I am from Greece too. My husband and I have made Chicago our home for 49 years. Our children and grand children fill our hearts with love and joy.
I loved my grand parents and have great memories with them. I also tried to create good memories for my grand children.
I have written a book…in the process of being edited…where the Greek culture plays a great role.
I invited you to my inbox. Hope to see you there! Looking forward to knowing you better! Blessings and Light!
Hi Katina! I am so happy you enjoyed this post! I am intrigued…I’d like to hear more about your book! Congratulations! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Nicole, I think your Mam-Maw was an amazing lady! And cute? Wow, she was a cute lady in her stylish clothes! And yes you certainly look like her. Reading your post made me so thankful that I get to live so close to my little grand-girls, it also made me aware of how I need to tell them stories that they will remember and cherish. Thanks for sharing! – Dori, Ranch Farmgirl – 🙂
Hi Dori! Thank you! Your grand-girls are indeed blessed to live close to you. I wish we had either one of our families close so that my daughter could spend more time with her grandparents than just the once or twice a year trips. As for my mother’s mom, I still remember her “sleepovers”, where she would sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag with me, because I wanted to. (Her poor back must have been in awful shape, but she never complained). I still remember all the stories she would tell…probably why I am obsessed with the 1940’s now! Enjoy those grand-babies, and make lots of great memories! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
This brought back so many memories for me. Your grandmother was expecting your father in a picture I had never seen. Your recipes look so good and I love the pictures of the cookies. Mam Maw would be proud of you. She also made wonderful baklava. The picture of your hair with the braids on the sides were of you in third grade in your school uniform. Your grandmother always said you were a beautiful child.
Love, Mother
Thanks, Mom! Love you, Nicole
Nicole,thanks for the recipes. You look so much like your grandmother. It’s incredible!
Hi Betty, Enjoy the recipes, farmsister! I will be making the cookies for our Farmgirl Sisterhood Christmas party. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
I loved this post. My parents were Dutch and I have some receipe books that I use especially around Christmas time. It keeps the connection to them alive since they are both gone. I also feel linked InTo my family history this way, it really feels like we belong I think
Hi Denise, What a wonderful way to connect to your parents. Thank you for sharing. I bet you’ve got some great Dutch recipes! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Nice post! Thanks so much for the recipes, especially the Koulourakia – looks like the cookies that both of my grandmas made. I’m going to make these for my dad soon!
Thanks, Ali! Enjoy! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole