Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sherrilyn Askew!!!
Sherrilyn Askew (Sherri, #1350) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level Nellie Will-do Merit Badge!
“I have spent over 100 hours stitching a costume for the upcoming Women’s Primitive Skills weekend. I made 3 chemises, 3 bloomers, and one linen day dress, all in the style of the late 1700s.
I still need to make a reticule for the weekend. A lady needs to carry her things, and pockets are going out of fashion at this time.”
On Amazon?
goats in the city via rentaruminant.com
Amazon now offers goats for rent to help with your yard chores. The service, launched in late March and currently testing in the Seattle market, falls under the lawn and garden section in Amazon’s Home Services and is called Hire a Goat Grazer.
goats on the hillside via rentaruminant.com
Customers interested in this eco-friendly service are asked to answer a few questions, then Amazon sends an e-mail with estimated prices and times available for service. Seattle-based company Rent-A-Ruminent then delivers goats to your home and sets up fencing and a water source for them while they lunch.
goats enjoying lunch via rentaruminant.com
Goat owner Tammy Dunakin says the goats will immediately begin to eat most of what’s in their path, and what they leave behind, she will clear herself. Many of Tammy’s furry crew are rescue goats, and she takes good care of them. Her original herd of 10 goats has now grown to 120. Tammy’s goats are often seen clearing foliage along Seattle interstates, and Seattle City Light uses them to clear terrain that would otherwise be too dangerous for workers or machinery. Amazon jokes on its website that some droppings will probably be left behind as the goats graze and customers are encouraged to keep the fertilizer as a gift.
Our fingers, dark with soil, press seeds and pluck fruits.
Our shoulders feel the heat of the sun.
Come tomorrow’s sunrise, our muscles will ache with work done diligently.
And we will begin again.
You see,
no matter where in the world you may be,
we’re not so different,
you and me.
So, to celebrate common ground across the globe,
let’s have a little female farmer geography bee, MaryJane style (all fun, no foul).
What do you say?
It’s easy—just scroll through the photos below and try to guess each farmgal’s geographic location.
Jot down your answers as you go, and check them at the bottom of this post. I’ll provide a map link within each answer so that you can investigate (plan a visit?) if you wish.
Photo by Kate Holt/AusAID, Africa Food Security 17, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo courtesy of Florida Memory via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by David Baldi (user PandaDB) via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Meena Kadri via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Swathi Sridharan (ICRISAT) via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Leonardo Aguiar via Wikimedia Commons
Answers:
You just came in from the garden.
Maybe it started to drizzle, or
(woe of woes)
there just isn’t anything left to DO right now …
Sprouts are sprouting, knee-high to a toad.
Photo by jonsson from Göteborg, Sweden via Wikimedia Commons
Weeds (well, only the two) have been pulled.
Trellises dutifully await the dangling green weight of pole beans.
Photo by mark_dixon4 via Pixabay.com
Sigh …
Now what?
What do you do with these …
Photo by Daniel Sone via Wikimedia Commons
until it’s time to fill them with these?
Photo by Robert & Mihaela Vicol via Wikimedia Commons
I have just the thing.
It’s a … well, it’s a … ummm … okay, okay …
It’s a book.
“A booooook?!” you exclaim. “No matter how much I love reading, this is not the time. I want to GARDEN.”
Hush now, my dear. I feel your impatience—really, I do. (I am in Idaho, remember, where spring can be oh-so-slow to settle in.)
That’s why, when I say “book,” I mean something special—not just any book, but a voluptuous volume that has the power to tide you over until your first harvest and may actually beckon you back when your baskets are bursting.
This book is called Growing Beautiful Food, and it’s filled with mouth-watering photos (not to mention succulent text) by Matthew Benson, contributing editor and television spokesman for Rodale’s Organic Gardening.
Much to this impatient gardener’s delight, Mr. Benson created a video (set to a sweetly soothing soundtrack), designed to hook garden-giddy gals like you and me. Watch and dream …
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
