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There are certain times of the year that I miss New Mexico, the place of my childhood, so much. This is one of those times… green chile time!
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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”.
Love this post, those green fields of chilies are beautiful! We sometimes get them here, our supermarket roasts them on a big grill in the parking lot.
Hi Esther!
Those green fields of chile’s really did look marvelous! I’m kind of wanting to go back to New Mexico about now!
– Dori –
P.S. I received your letter in the mail. Thank you SO much. It really made my day. xo
Love the info about chiles – so what do you use them in? You said your parents have the chiles for almost every meal. Recipes, please!
Hi Laura,
My Dad puts either green chile or jalepenos on his eggs every morning, his sandwich or burrito for lunch, and probably 75% of the time my Mom fixes Mexican food at night since that is what they love and the part of the country they live in! 🙂 But you want to know one of the best things my Mom puts green chile in? Grilled cheese sandwiches! Oh how I love that! And of course it is wonderful in a hamburger. Or with a pot of pinto beans. Or on top of your scrambled eggs!
– Dori –
I would love a tasty, basic recipe for pork green chile that you eat with tortillas. A friend of mine used to make it and I forgot the recipe.
Hi Diane,
Oh my goodness. I love pork green chile and fresh flour tortillas. I’m pretty sure my Mom has a great recipe for that too. Maybe I need to write a post on a few green chile recipes! 🙂
– Dori –
P.S. I will ask Mom about a recipe and let you know!
You have totally whetted my appetite, we love ‘Hatch’s’ the most and fortunately we live close enough that they are sold in our area – already roasted too. So the chile will get made soon. Thanks for the web site – interesting. God bless
Thanks Joan!
Buying them already roasted would be great! Oh don’t you just love that smell in your car driving home with roasted green chiles? 🙂
– Dori –
Oh Please….the recipe for Green Chile Enchiladas!!!!
Hi Victoria,
I will get going on some green chile enchiladas and maybe get a post done sometime soon! 🙂
– Dori –
Hi Dori!
I learned something new with this post! Being from Texas, I love, love, love anything with green chiles but never gave them much thought. I bet fresh ones are amazing! Your photos made my mouth water. I make a few recipes here but can only find canned, kinda mushy ones. When I go “home” I order my favorite Tex Mex…”green” enchiladas! Great post.
Farmgirl Hugs,
Nicole
Thanks Nicole. Oh boy I bet Texas has some of the best Tex Mex ever! I’ve been to Texas many times but can’t say I’ve had the privilege of any Tex Mex food… going to make that a priority the next time I go! 🙂
– Dori –
I grew up eating Hatch green chiles before they were famous. Now they are everywhere. We eat the in everything. I find that the flavor gets hotter the longer you leave them in the freezer.
Susan,
I did not know that about them getting hotter the longer they are in the freezer. That is good to know! Thanks for sharing!
– Dori –
Thanks for the tutorial on Hatch chiles. I will have to do that next time we get them. Great way to freeze them. Thanks so much!!
Rowena
Rowena,
Freezing them whole has its advantage as does freezing them diced! I love them both way!
– Dori –
Dori, my husband and I returned recently from visiting New Mexico for the first time. Neither of us had ever been there, but we had seen photos of such amazing beauty. We spent the week going from one state/national park to another and enjoyed seeing so much diversity. What a beautiful and different landscape!! I think two of my favorite places were White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns. Amazing!! The green chili in lots of foods was new to me. It was way hotter than what I am used to. LOL!! But I am sure a person gets use to the heat and then looks forward to having it in recipes.
Hi Winnie!
Yes… it is all about what we get used to isn’t it? I think the little New Mexican babies are given green chile in their bottles! Ha Ha! 🙂
I bet your New Mexico trip was amazing. White Sands is just about the most incredible place. It’s been years since I’ve been to Carlsbad Caverns but it is quite phenomenal.
Big hugs to you… thank you for always reading and commenting. It means a lot.
– Dori –
P.S. I missed the Apple Pie Sunday!!!! I was SOOOO bummed. 🙁
HI Dori~ I am sorry you missed Apple Pie Sunday here at MJF!! HOWEVER, in my humble opinion, Tennessee Apple pickin’ is still on and I just betcha there are some apples at the local farm stand begging to come home with you for a pie. Besides, Apple Pie is good anytime you make one!! I am particularly fond of it for breakfast. LOL!! In my opinion, apple pie with some sharp cheddar cheese for breakfast IS the true blue Farmgirl Breakfast of Champions!!
Yum ! green chile is in oour blood as New Mexicans! I love your John Deere illustration. We have saved many old farm equipment from the scrap yard…and vehicles…and rusty treasures.
We are in the Datil mountains, ranching country.
Ditto! About the only reason I miss Albuquerque is the food and the weather. If I miss NM at all it’s during the fall when the chiles are being roasted everywhere, and Christmas time when there are luminarias everywhere. We were there almost 8 years, and I learned to love green chile along with way too many other great New Mexican dishes, not to be confused with Mexican food for those who have never lived in NM. Even though we moved back to TN in 1995, we still tend to cook a lot of New Mexican cuisine. I find that interesting since I grew up in the south on beans, taters, and cornbread. I think including recipes in your posts is a wonderful idea! I vote YES!