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Hello Farmgirl Friends! Do you remember the Liberty Nine Patch Quilt that I started almost two years ago? Normally I am a quick finisher… I do not do well with unfinished projects. But that quilt required more (expensive) Liberty fabrics and more time than I had energy for (smile!) so I literally put it away. (Knowing that if I left it in sight it would drive me crazy!)
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Hi to all the Farmgirl friends, I’m Mary and I’m so excited to be able to join the other Farmgirl Bloggers as your Rural Farmgirl!
Welcome to my corner of the world…a small farm in Ohio built in 1864. Originally a 160-acre cattle and sheep farm, as time passed it became a dairy farm, and then a horse farm. Now it’s home to goats and chickens, and with any luck, someday a pretty Jersey milk cow!
I was born and raised here in the Midwest, and much of that time was spent at my grandmother’s home. I have sweet memories of a little white house beside a grassy hill, bordered on one side by fragrant lilacs, with a meandering creek nearby. The woods along the top of the hill offered endless places to explore during the days, and each night the song of the whippoorwills would sing us to sleep. My grandmother tended a large garden and made the most wonderful bread and rolls. In early fall, rows of canning jars were lined up, each filled with the summer’s harvest such as dilly green tomatoes, bread & butter pickles, and hot peppers. Even though I spent most of my growing-up years in the suburbs, her country home always holds a special place in my heart.
Fast forward, a few years after college I was working in a bustling downtown city, when one day I stepped outside to clear my mind. It was then I spotted a single flower growing in a broken section of concrete. Somehow, in the shadows of the high-rise buildings and noisy surroundings, this lovely flower was blooming. That sharp contrast was all I needed, it was time for a change.
It was in that hectic corporate world that I first discovered MaryJanesFarm. A friend shared a copy of the Artists in Aprons issue and immediately I was hooked. There it was in writing: Farmgirl isn’t so much a place, as it is a frame of mind – no matter where we are, we can be connected to solid values and things we love. I kept that in mind while I began to dream.
Still holding onto those memories of my grandmother’s home, the search began for an old farmhouse near a small town. It seemed like endless Saturdays were spent on winding country roads looking at homes for sale. Finally, an 1864 farmhouse on 10 acres was available. Yes, it needed quite a bit of renovation, but with mahogany and red oak woodwork, I was pulled in by the craftsmanship of another time. Soon changes began – shag carpet came up and flocked wallpaper came down. While there’s still much I want to do, the uneven floors, tiny closets, and even the tree trunks in the basement that help support the main floor (yes, I’m serious!) don’t bother me. I just smile and see it as a house with “character.” Round it out with some goats, chickens, bees, gardens, and family, then it becomes Home.
I love simple things…old houses and wooden barns, tying on an apron for Sunday dinner, barn sales & county fairs, roadside stands, porch swings, and handed-down quilts. Most Saturday afternoons you’ll find me in the milkhouse selling baked goods, jams, and garden vegetables to friends & neighbors.
I’m so glad to meet you! The next time you stop by you may find a new recipe, ideas for upcycling, or travel a country road with me. Whatever it is, I hope you’ll find something you enjoy and leave feeling inspired!
Spring has sprung for many of you, dear readers. However, in my part of the country, winter hasn’t quite let go just yet. Even if Mother Nature graces us with some early spring-like days, we usually get a cold snap around St. Patty’s Day, and nothing really starts blooming until April. I’m finding myself with a case of floral fever!
I love flowers and floral patterns! Every room of my house has some nod to flowers and plants – be it a picture, a textile, or a plant. I think living in a cold climate makes me an even bigger fan of florals. I have lived most of my life in Connecticut, yet in my memories I can still clearly see the wildflowers in the Texas hill country from when I was small. A field of Texas wildflowers is a sight I will always miss.
Living in New England, I appreciate blooming trees and plants now even more, and especially love flowers. I look forward to my favorite flowers blooming each spring, signaling the end of winter’s rest.
While I love all flowers, my favorite flowers are peonies. I just love their big, fluffy blooms that remind me of an old-fashioned petticoat.
Blooming in cooler climates, peonies have a short bloom time, and can be delicate, losing their petals in a heavy rain. Even so, the scent of a peony is Heavenly!
One event that we look forward to each year is the Connecticut Flower and Garden show. It’s usually at the end of February, and is a sign that the end of winter is near. There are vendors of all sorts, plants, and beautiful displays. Held at the Connecticut Convention Center, it is so exciting to go up the large stairway and into the doors where it is a gardener’s proverbial candy store! This year did not disappoint.
We had a wonderful time at the show this year, but my most favorite booth this year was that of a local artist from Westport, Connecticut, Kerstin Rao. Her booth was so bright and happy! My daughter bought me a beautiful tote bag, featuring a stunning bouquet of peonies, as an early birthday present.
Sketching all the time as a child, Kerstin Rao was known in school for her drawings. Originally from Minnesota, Kerstin moved to Kentucky when she was in the third grade, when her college-professor parents moved to the state for positions. An art major in college, when Kerstin moved to New York in the 1980’s, she realized at the time the New York City art trend was grunge and dark – the complete opposite of Kerstin, whose art was more delicate and cheerful. (Kerstin herself is a sunny breath of fresh air). Knowing she had to make a living, a sculptor friend suggested that Kerstin try teaching. She loved it from day one, and teaching became her calling.
Using art as a way to engage and explain to her students, Kerstin was an educator for 34 years, teaching in inner-city schools, and eventually ending up in Westport, Connecticut in 1999.
It was during the lockdown of March 2020 that Kerstin found her second calling, creating the art that now graces her beautiful totes, tea towels and note cards.
When the Westport Farmers’ Market carefully reopened, the first thing Kerstin bought was a beautiful fresh flower bouquet from Kristin Burrello’s Muddy Feet Flower Farm. (Her bouquets and fresh flowers are amazing)!
Looking at that first purchased bouquet in the breezeway of her home, Kerstin pulled out her sketchpad. Kerstin began sketching bouquets she purchased each week from Kristin, loving the shapes and colors. She would lose herself in drawing, leaving behind the tension and worry of the Pandemic. Kerstin says she feels she “vanished into a world of natural beauty.”
After posting her sketches on Facebook, Kerstin received lots of encouragement and requests for items like greeting cards, and the rest is history! Kristin’s flowers inspired her, and she helped Kerstin as a sounding board, as Kerstin left teaching in her late 50’s to become a woman business owner of Vivid Cottage. Kerstin says “bouquets are a tiny world”, and “every bouquet is a fresh opportunity for adventure as an artist.”
To me, flowers are also medicine for the soul. I’m looking forward to spring, summer and fall blooms.
Until then, I will enjoy my bag, my flowery dresses, and other florals. And to help YOU with floral fever, I put together a little floral-themed giveaway: flowery note cards, a cute little hanging sign, flower seed packets, floral emery boards, and beautiful floral seals. One reader this month will be randomly chosen from the comments, so don’t forget to let me know that you stopped by!
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”.
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