I’ve always been curious about beekeeping. It’s a hobby that goes hand-in-hand with living a simpler, organic, environmentally-aware lifestyle. Not knowing where to start, I was thrilled when my family was invited to learn the art of beekeeping from another local family during their fall honey harvest!
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”.
Great write-up Nicole–a manual of sorts for the process of beekeeping. I’m sure your post will inspire someone to go for it!!!!! With the honey bee in a beleaguered place these days, we can’t spotlight them enough. Great post. Thanks for creating more honeybee enthusiasts this morning!!!!!
Thank you, MaryJane! I am so glad to share this with everyone. I really am looking forward to beekeeping this spring, and am so grateful to John and his family for showing me the ropes. There’s just so many good things bees bring! Much love, Nicole
Boy, did this post bring back memories! My dad raised bees as long as I can remember. He had a ‘honey house’ in the back yard and built his extractor and other tools. He made an observatory to watch the bees at work. I remember many a hot summer day/night working in the honey house putting labels on jars and filling them with the lightest pure honey made from white clover. He had several farms around the area that encouraged him to keep his bees at their place. Every year we gathered with other bee keepers at a ‘bee reunion’. It was a good way for families to get to know one another. With the onslaught against honeybees right now it’s more important that ever to protect this little miracle worker.
Cathy, what a lovely memory to share with us! Thank you! You are so right, bees are little miracle workers and anything we can do to help them is great. (And they reward us with delicious honey)! Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
I love honey and it’s one of the reasons I’m not vegan. When I found out honey in Egyptian tombs was usable after thousands of years, I was hooked. Not only is it wonderful in tea and sweetening oatmeal, cream of wheat or rice, it was an antiseptic to help heal the radiation burns. Another use: scrub your face, dry it and apply honey liberally in a mask. Relax with some warm teabags over your eyes and you’ll have a salon-quality facial. Here’s a virtual toast to the beekeepers, especially the ones in San Francisco who create honey from their own neighborhoods for sale to everyone here locally. Salud!
Adrienne, what a great idea. I think I will try the honey mask this weekend. And isn’t that amazing that honey was found and still good in the Egyptian tombs? It’s definitely one of nature’s gifts. Thank you for commenting! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
What fun!!! I am not a ‘keeper’ but my best friend about 1 mile away is and we wonder if all my great wild flowers are pollinated by wonderful bees and in turn if that is why her honey is so tasty. Anyway it is such a fun thing to help with. Thanks for sharing your experience and the product info, I will pass it onto her. God Bless
Hi Joan! Has your friend noticed a different taste and color to her honey, depending on the season and what’s blooming in your flowers? I bet you all can tell. My brother has a friend in Houston who is a retired police officer. This gentleman is a beekeeper and now bottles honey, and my brother sent me a jar one year. It was so good, and definitely tasted and looked different than the honey I found here in New England locally. To me, it’s almost like appreciating different wines! Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
Beekeeping is an exciting and wonderful hobby! My husband gave me a beekeeping set up for Christmas three years ago and we set up our box and hive the following April. We have been very successful and have given away many greatly appreciated jars of honey to our friends and family. We have gotten much enjoyment out of our bees and their honey and in the process have learned a great deal. We did join a local beekeeping association and I would highly recommend that. It is a good way to learn quickly and to meet new friends.
Hi Catherine! Thanks for all the great info! Congratulations on your success in beekeeping…keep up the good work. There is a beekeeping association in my area, too. I will look into that this spring, as well. Thanks again! Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
Nicole, Thanks for the informative article on beekeeping. I am interested in starting a hive in the next year or two. I will send you some Wisconsin honey!
The homemade cough medicine sounds interesting. I will have to try some this winter.
Rose
Hi Rose, Maybe next year, we both will have hives and will be TRADING honey! Wouldn’t that be something? Good luck with your hives! Farmgirl hugs, Nicole