It’s Fall…brisk mornings, the crunch of leaves underfoot, and a warm glow from the season’s first bonfire. This is my favorite time of the year!
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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 Mary…. I love the idea of a Pie Potluck!!! I think I’ll invite my favorite gal friends and do that!!!! Pie is my very, very, very favorite dessert ever. I’d rather have pie over birthday cake!
Also; I have a trunk just like yours pictured and I love the idea of storing seasonal decorations in there. Mine if just stuffed with extra blankets etc…
Happy Fall Mary!!!
Hi Dori! Let me know how your Pie Potluck goes…what a fun way to get some new recipes before the Thanksgiving Pie Season. And always a little Girl Gab fun before the holidays! Let me know how it goes…and yes, pie over cake for me, too! A blanket trunk is great for these chilly days, just grab one and curl up. I just found I had so many ornaments, I might as well keep them close to where the tree will be, and the trunk is so roomy, it’s ideal. Hope all is well…enjoy these lovely fall days!
Another wonderful post, and a perfectly timed reminder to enjoy this beautiful season and everything it has to offer.
The pumpkins are carved and there are bats flying in the porch, in hope that we’ll receive some spooky visitors later this evening. Xx
Thanks so much Jules, I appreciate you taking the time to stop by. It sounds like you were absolutely set for Halloween…I just love seeing all the littles in costume! Here there’s always a big pot of chili simmering and some silly “mummy dogs” (hot dogs wrapped in strips of dough and then baked) – and I love the roasted pumpkin seeds. It flies by…yes, let’s enjoy all it has to offer.
I couldn’t love this post more Mary… It’s filled with great ideas, wise words and, of course, drop-dead gorgeous photography. I, too, find that time is just swirling by and I can’t keep up or catch my breath. I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that I am in the late autumn season of my life and I just don’t move as quickly as I once did. Our weather has turned…no fall picnics or porch sitting here anymore. And the soup/pie potluck is a great idea. My family did that one year, but with a twist. We’d get together one night each week and one family would bring their favorite soup (and the recipe of course) and the rest of us would bring breads/rolls/dessert, etc. And we’d spend the rest of the evening playing board games. That seems like a lifetime ago. Happy November to you! ~Robin~
Robin you always say the kindest things…thank you so much! I’m right there with you…swirling by is a perfect description, some days I’m floored as to where the day’s hours have gone. Oh I really love the idea of a family soup potluck…it’s perfect for these chilly nights, and one person doesn’t have to do all the prep work. And board games need to be brought back (in my humble opinion) a simple, fun way to pass an evening with family & friends. Always appreciate you visiting, Robin…so glad to have “met” you. Settle in and keep cozy!