It is difficult to restrict what I enjoy about MaryJanesFarm to only one thing! The most encompassing, I guess, would be the inspiration and encouragement I get to go on ahead and do that cooking, or sew again, or build my own trellis for that garden I created all by myself. It’s okay if I love cows, even if some people think it’s weird for a city girl. MaryJanesFarm has helped me stop wishing I could be a strong and resourceful woman like my grandmother’s were and just be one. And I am! What’s not to enjoy about that!?

I’m like Cindi, here! There are so many things I love about MaryJanesFarm. So, for purposes of entering this contest, I would say MJF offers me a chance for a part of me to come forward. Authenticity sort of describes it, but so does opportunity. Whether it comes from reading the magazines or books, the ideas resonate with me and there is a freedom to just try something new and just see how it resonates. With the MJF Chatroom, there is support, encouragement and lots of sharing with a big community of like minded women all around the world thinking along the same lines. We all can come together from different origins and enjoy what the other has to share. Plus Mary Jane and her team provide us endless chances to experiment with recipes, gardening, animal husbandry, and a can do, will do attitude. I agree with Cindi in that MJF encourages women to empower themselves and dig into those interests and talents. Like the photo of today, I am on that MJF Train and loving the adventure ride to discovery with lots of other Farmgirl friends! I do hope we get to stop in Oakdale for a view of Barron’s grand old flour Mill. I think I will ask the Conductor next time he comes by!

I love that Mary Janes Farm is a magazine that I actually read from cover to cover. There’s no page that goes unturned. Definitely not a waste of money in today’s expensive throw away world

I enjoy the anticipation of receiving my next issue of MaryJanesFarm. I read every page amd try very hard to never rush through the magazine. I make sure I take time for me and Maryjane. I look forward to gathering everything needed for my newest recipe, my newest homemade something – something and thoroughly enjoy all the kind, encouraging and inspiring words from the well written articles to the inspirational words of other FarmGirls. My friends have referred to me as somewhat a modern pioneer girl ….now I’d like to be known as one of MaryJane’s girls.

Thank you for the chance to win your book Secret Garden. Being able to enter into a world of fantasy by coloring is a great enjoyment. Mean while I will be enjoying your magazine Mary Janes Farm.

I enjoy everything but i do love the ideas, projects and i collect cast iron so i love seing the different cast iron and the recipes. just love it all and when i want just to sit and enjoy a cup of tea and read i gather all my maryjanes and go thru them time and time again.

I eagerly anticipate the arrival of my Mary Jane’s Farm magazine every month! I always read it from cover to cover! I received my subscription as a gift from my amazing sister. I LOVE it!

The first thing I do when I settle in with Mary Janes Farm is enjoy the design and layout, and even the feel of the paper it is printed on. Then I go back to the front to read and enjoy every page.

I love the layout, the format is colorful, fun, and artfully done and keeps you reading and wanting more.
I really love that you go back to the way our moms (well, my mom)! did things without all the electronic confusion that is in this world today!
Thoroughly enjoy each and every page!

The lady farmer I admire the most is my mom! She grew up on a dairy farm and was the only child of 8 to go to college. While raising four girls she always kept a big garden and taught us to honor the earth. When I was 9 we moved to the country and she’s kept a “gentleman’s” farm with everything from pigs and goats to sheep, chickens and rabbits. She made her own cheese and we ate our own meat. She is now 74 and keeps a garden, chickens and sheep to this day. She’s my hero!

my farmer woman I admire, is my mom’s best friend jolene. She always does CSA and she has a green house and cows!! she also raises two boys (one of them is her husband).
She taught us how to garden, help birth a cow, raise pigs and shear a rabbit. She is always putting these crazy ideas in my moms head and plays a mean game of spades.

I admire my aunt. They are now retired as farmers but still keep up on all the latest farm news. When I was little her house was always bustling. She is the woman I model my own household after always ready for hospitality, being frugal not wasteful, a godly mother & housewife. She has approached her older years with grace & I hope to continue to follow her example.

I’m not saying this so I get an edge in the give-away, but my inspiration is you, MaryJane!

I actually know several women farmers, but I’d like to mention a dear friend, Michelle (cannot give last name) who is totally amazing! She raises everything imaginable, has outdoor gardens as well as a greenhouses. She is also a Farmers Market vendor and has a very attractive display with a vintage/retro look. She has mentioned to me more than once how she loves the Farmgirl Connection and Mary Janes Farm magazine.
She has a sunny, upbeat attitude, is so friendly and courteous, treating her customers and friends with utmost respect. Furthermore she had purchased and wears several aprons that I’ve made!
I’d LOVE some good coffee too, so thank you for the giveaway opportunity!
CJ

I sincerely admire Bev Thompson of Futility Farms in Gilman, Wisconsin. Here’s a short exerpt from the website: “Futility Farms is a small grass farm consisting of 126 acres located in north central Wisconsin in a little town called Gilman, (population 412). Futility Farms is the home of natural beef – raised without the use of growth hormones, without a regular dose of antibiotics and without the use of chemical fertilizers on the land – the way beef should be raised, the way it used to be raised.”
http://www.futilityfarms.com/
The meat she sells is melt-in-your mouth delicious.
And just for fun, my birthday is June 24.

Beth Rohrer, Rohrer’s Orchards in East Petersburg, PA. Most delicious apples, and peaches! Working hard day and night with very few complants!

I know of a woman in the next town by her products really. She raises free range chickens that produce olive green eggs and packages and sells them in the local supermarket. Right near the egg case, the small local market allowed her to have an electric photo frame which she uses to display and cycle through photos of her farm and chickens. I really enjoy seeing women that have that entrepeurial spirit like me, taking it to market.

My favorite farm woman was my mother. When we moved to the country in 1941, she spent the first summer in the wild blackberry patches around our small farm, picking berries that she canned and made into wonderful jam. My father planted a big garden every summer and tended it. Mother and my grandmother put up tomatoes and made jams and jellies. We picked and canned or froze garden produce from beans to tomatoes. During strawberry season, we picked boxes and boxes full of sweet Michigan berries. Mother took them into town and sold them door to door. Our home was always open to friends and family who would drive out to visit. I often think of her wisdom, industry, and initiative and hope I reflect some of this in our home and our small farm.

I greatly admire Barbara Kingsolver. Her book “Animal, vegetable, miracle” is still one of the best books I have ever read and I aspire to be like her.

A beautiful woman farmer I know lives on the coast of the San Juan. Originally haI Ling from England, she fell in love on Friday harbour, took 6 years too get her visa as a full time resident and now grows produce for local restaurants and the farmers market. A beautiful person she is.

This enamel ware coffee pot reminds me of the one my grandmother always had sitting on the back of her wood stove.. She always said that you should place your egg shells in the pot because it made the coffee clear. Since it was perked on the stove, I am guessing that it was often cloudy with sediment, but I don’t know how the egg shells changed that. Ever heard of this technique?

This picture makes me want to go camping!

This is an interesting business endeavor! I have heard of using sheep to do the same task. For sure it is an environmentally useful idea and it sounds like the owners are careful that the goats won’t be around poisonous plants or traffic or dogs. It sounds like business is busting at the seams with such a huge herd increase. I hope they do well and continue to grow!

Have you heard about the goats that were used to clear a historic cemetery near the Anacostia river in Washington DC area? If I remember correctly one of the concerns there was for preventing invasive plant species from getting into the river; another was for protecting the historic monuments at the gravesites.

Re: the perfect clothespin. I love hanging clothes on the line; it is meditative, gives me a chance to observe changes in the trees, watch and listen to the birds & squirrels chattering, feel the cooling effect of the damp clothes in a breeze on a hot, dry day… and more. It is a treasured summer activity.

Now, that is very cool and I approve of this farmer’s effort to improve the lives of his herd. Like you, I am not a waterbed fan because I don’t like the constant movement and it is hard to get up and down on them. Perhaps, these are not as thick and wobbly? My other question is how do you keep them clean? I guess you can rake them and hose them down? They would have to be really durable and tough to withstand sharp hooves and the weight. I saw where the farmer’s sweat shirt was from Ohio State and I know that they have a huge animal science department and teaching dairy farm because I have seen it. My hope is that graduates enter the dairy business with new technology and better ethics towards their animals.

The color of this sky reminds me of what it looks like right before a bad Spring thunderstorm. Kind of spooky and worrisome looking. Or maybe it is just early morning fog?

A stormy day indeed..looks like a scene from the Wizard of Oz…we’re not in Kansas, anymore, Dorothy!

After spending years growing up visiting often with my Grandmother Katie I will model after in so many ways. From kindness, gardening, and giving to others, to sewing, crocheting, cooking, and cleaning, Lord knows I have to qualify as a farm girl at heart!

Born and raised.

I am a farmgirl and I’m teaching my daughters to be also!! We have a small flock of chickens and two calves are being delivered tomorrow! We garden, can, sew and are getting our first tractor soon! We live on almost four acres that we have named “Windy Hill Homestead “

I love the smell of spring, to learn how to do a new craft or skill, baking, cooking, canning, serving, creating, all things farmgirl!

I am a farm girl at heart. We are planning to make the move within 3 years. Until then, we have fruit trees, garden and 4 hens.

I was born in northern Alabama, raised as southern as they come. I had beautiful aunties that could cook up a storm and make the best sweet tea you ever tasted. The sweetest most beautiful southern Mother that taught me grace and manners. And i was blessed with a Farm girl Grandmother..she taught me to sew on a old singer sewing machine, showed me her quilt pieces and told the stories behind them. For Christmas all in the family (which was huge by the way) received a homemade gift that Grandmother made. She made turtle pin cushions, booties for our feet, aprons,dolls and so many other things that we all cherished. It was a way of life for us till mama and my Dad moved away from Alabama and to many big cities which we would live. We changed…we were different then the family we left behind , not inside but on the outside so to speak. I was made fun of at school for the way i talked with that southern drawl, I over came most of it through speech therapy and i learned to fit into a modern lifestyle. When my Beautiful Grandmother past away back in 1982 my life was never the same! I grieved for her more than i could put into words. After that we would go home to Alabama to visit and i would find peace there with the old style comforts. I was married and continued to find my path in life all the while never forgetting where i came from. One day i picked up Mary Jane’s Book of Ideas, I couldn’t put it down! It took me back to where i came from, in a sense it took me home. It brings comfort and closeness in a modern world…something any Mother, Grandmother, Aunties and sisters need. I am a true Farm girl that left and returned back to what brings me true happiness,wholesomeness,Grace,love and Kindness and my southern accent has returned. Thank You Mary Jane for being just who you are, you are a blessing in so many ways to so many beautiful woman. God Bless

Was born in a rural community hospital (62) years ago, was oldest of six children. My favorite room in the house was outside, in the hay loft, or the chicken house, or in the woods. I would like to say “in the garden” but it wasn’t until I became an adult that I realized pulling weeds was therapeutic. For the last forty years, my hands get the spring itch to dig in the dirt and my nose twitches to smell its earthy fragrance. I am bustin’ galluses proud to be a farm girl.

My dad was born a farm boy and always longed to get back to the farm. I think that he gave me that farm girl spirit. I have always had a heart to be in the quiet woods or picking wildflowers along a stream. I have always loved to craft with my hands, cook or bake something yummy for my family and get giddy when I see a clothesline full of clothes or veggies that I’ve grown. I married a city boy with a farm boy spirit and we long to get back out of a city and to the land.

It’s in my “jeans”!

I am a farmgirl through what I like to think of as “ethnic memory.” My people homesteaded a farm in southern Indiana when they came from Germany in the 1840s and always farmed to some degree or another until probably the early 1950s. My dad put up hay as his first job and I was taught to can vegetables and fruits in season, make my own clothes, hang laundry on the line — no matter if we lived in town or out, we made do and learned to do without sometimes. The smell of cut hay or the musk of a cornfield on a lazy summer afternoon — mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! The drone of bees working an apple tree in springtime, or the whickety-whick of a mowing machine — those are the soundtrack of my happiest days. Living on one wooded acre now as a chronologically-enhanced lady, I still love the smell and feel of garden dirt on my hands and the sounds of the birds and little critters working away at their daily tasks. Come sit with me on the porch and have some iced tea and we’ll do our “fancy” work for a while.

I think I’ve always wanted to be a farmgirl, but I just found out that my great-grandfather was a farmer (I think he grew apples, among other things). Heredity is a good thing!

I am not a farmgirl-yet. But I just got back last night from a week long, 2500+ mile drive through all of Northern California and Oregon to find my little farm. I looked at at least 30 properties and came home more inspired, convinced and determined than ever!

I’m a farm girl because out of my almost 57 years….I have lived less than one year off of a farm!! I was born and raised on a mixed farm and I am now happily married for almost 38 years living and loving our cattle ranch….we are in the middle of calving out our 140 head of angus cattle <3 and I love your magazine, website and all that you do!!

I am a farmgirl because the scent of alfalfa and sweet clover growing in the field across the road from our house still calls to me 40 years later. I am a farmgirl because I drive 1/2 hour one way to buy raw milk so I can make butter and cheese and yogurt and other good things. I want to have chickens and maybe a goat. I love the smell of freshly baked bread. Newborn kittens are fun to have around. Those are some of the many reasons why I am a farmgirl.

I read all the above farmgirls entries and am so amazed at these women! You need to write a book, MaryJane, on all of these stories..what a wonderful, inspiring read that would be! I consider myself a farmgirl…learning from my mom, a mother of 6, a gardener, beekeeper, sheep farming woman and my grandmothers, they taught me how to sew, garden, preserve food, and to love life and thank God at every meal and at every sunrise and sunset…I have a copy of this book, a gift from my dear, sweet friend, Lisa at amishlandseeds.com. I have it bedside, and love to look through it..always something so special to read, and inspire me…it is sitting on a tiny vanity chair, made of mahogany wood…a gift from my neighbors daughter to me when my neighbor passed away….my sweet and tiny antique chair… and, all my favorite books sit upon it,..my granddaughter calls it the “princess chair” as she loves to take all the books off..and, sit down for a good read! I would give the book as a gift, like I received mine as I know it would touch someone else’s life like my copy has…thanks, MaryJane, for all the inspiration you give to all of us!

I was born a farmgirl. I lived on my grandparent’s farm for a while after my father passed. While there (age 4 or so) I terrorized the chickens, helped grandpa milk the cows by hand, gathered eggs with my grandmother. Grandpa and I slopped the pigs too. Now at my advanced age of 73, I’m a farmgirl living in a housing development. However, I do plant seeds and raise my own vegetables. I pick fruit at nearby orchards and put it by for the winter. That’s my story. I wish I could have been at at longer.

I was born and raised and after living in the city for a few years, I wouldn’t trade farm life for anything. I love the simplicity, the space, the view and of course the animals and garden! Being a farm girl is the best! 🙂

Deep in my heart is the farm girl. I have always wanted to raise chickens, have a garden, goats, cows and love the dirt I owned. It’s still on my list. I do garden, can, and preserved as much as I can each year. Organic foods top my list. I love the “can-do” attitude of being a farm girl. I mean love it!
I already own this fantastic book. I’d love to have it to give to another farm girl in my chapter. Hope I win!

I love the old way of things. Whether gardening, making bread, hanging clothes to dry, repurposing whatever I can, or just being happy from whatever simplicity life brings.

Ohoooo, I would love love to have this book. I have been wishing for this book for years and years. I live on a small farm and desperately need all the inspiration I can get !!!

I love the peace and quiet of county life and the business inside a country home.

I am a Farmgirl because it is an ingrained part of who I am and a much simpler way to be.

I’m not a farm girl yet but working on it. Saving to buy land in Montana then will raise goats for milk, chickens for eggs and grow as much of our own food as we can. Sounds like this book would come in handy 🙂

I’m a farmgirl because farmgirls are the best in the world! I grew up a farmgirl, playin in the dirt and climbin trees. Gardening has always been a huge passion with me and I have passed it down to all my girls! Raised and raisin farmgirls forever!

I love books like this.

Congratulations Lisa! You are going to love this book and I predict there will be many ideas to get you inspired for more camping!

Thanks Winnie! And thank you Mary Jane and staff for the giveaway, I love it!!

Yay Lisa!! I enjoyed hearing about your work with Kiva.com too. It is amazing how sometimes the smallest investment will launch someone in a poor country out of desperate poverty.

I really like these new bee themed fabric colors. The slate blue is my favorite.