The Kitchens Garden and its farm and its blog have combined to become more than a blog and a farm and a garden. We have become a community. We call that community the Fellowship of the Farmy and I would love you to join us and become part of our daily conversation.
In the age of social media and “sharing” there are a couple of ways you can join our movement towards clean food and strong bodies.
You can join the blog. I post every day at dawn telling you all about yesterday, then I return after milking the cow and doing the chores to talk to The Fellowship in the Lounge of Comments with my morning cup of coffee. This is my treat before I go back outside to get busy on the work of the day. So you, my dear reader, are very important to me and my day.
If you would like to join the Facebook page go here: FACEBOOK
If you would like to join me on Twitter (mostly I Tweet the blog) go here: TWITTER
If you would like to join me on Pinterest (where I try to post my favourite picture of the day – and other weird stuff) go here: PINTEREST.
And now The Farmy is on INSTAGRAM – find me at cecilia_thekitchensgarden.
And most recently I have another INSTAGRAM page for my AirBnB studio apartment called Kitchens Garden Retreat. The instagram page is called kitchensgardenretreat. The retreat is open so if you would like a break on the farm just go ahead and find a date that suits.
Find The Kitchens Garden Retreat on airbnb – HERE.
Thank you so very much for joining me on my quest to grow good clean food and spread the word on how easy it really is to lead the best life you can lead and grow and eat the best food we can afford. Creating our own tiny food revolution. The epitome of grass roots!
Take care.
Your friend on the farmy,
celi
PS. When you sign up (or even if you have been signed up for ages) it might be fun for you to introduce yourself in the comments below. Only if you feel like it though… there is NO PRESSURE in the blog world. I would especially love to know where you come from (just the state or country) we have such a gorgeous range of peoples from different places.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
199 responses to “Join Us”
Hello Miss C, I have been a lurker for a while. I originally come from Stoke-on Trent, in Staffordshire, England but since 1996 have been living in the South East of England. I have the privilege of raising 2 daughters with my husband and enjoy reading your blog daily. Keep up the good work you do, if I could pop round to help you I would but alas this is not very likely.
Hello there from Texas!
I’ve been following this blog for a long time, but have never posted on this page. So Hi! everyone, and Miss C, thank you for providing this girl-in-the-suburbs with a surrogate farm life. I’m a wife, a mother of three grown-ish kids, also a happy caretaker of 3 retired racing greyhounds and a couple of rescue cats. (nothing like your flerd but boy we have a lot of pet hair everywhere-ha!) I’m a writer–in fact my first novel, The Art of Crash Landing, is coming out in September 2015, published by HarperCollins. (Whoop!)
Most mornings I just read your post while drinking my coffee and then get on with my day. But even though I rarely have a comment worth leaving, please know that I love your blog and appreciate the love you send out to all of us every day.
Hi, I’m Audrey, a writer and photographer blogging from southeastern Minnesota. My roots, though, lie 120 miles to the west on the Minnesota prairie, about 25 miles from Walnut Grove. Yes, THAT Walnut Grove, Minnesota childhood home of author Laura Ingalls Wilder.
I grew up on a dairy and crop farm and every time I read C’s posts, I am reminded of those seventeen years on the farm. Thank you, C, for taking me back “home” so many days.
My writing reflects my love of the everyday, of the land, of the simple joys in life. Think scent of freshly-mown alfalfa, laundry on the line, apple crisp warm from the oven. I pen poetry, too, which has been published in numerous places from anthologies to billboards.
In short, writing and photography are my passions. I’d love to meet you in the comments section of my blog, Minnesota Prairie Roots.
Hello from Central Texas (west of Austin). Originally from the Kansas City area. I’m Carla. Married with 3 kids and 1 perfect granddaughter.
Grew up wanting, but never receiving, a pony for any gift giving occasion. Suburbia does not support pony living quarters.
Hubby and I bought 4 acres 14 years ago and we’ve never looked back. I finally got my pony. He and I got into a terrible accident that left me bruised and broken and afraid of him. A year of training together did nothing to make me less fearful of him. He moved in with a lovely family of 4-H children that adored him and gave him a job he loved–eating and not going on trail rides.
However, that opened the gates to having chickens and donkeys. Both are friendly, funny animals with personality to spare.
I have my own little farmy! I only wish I could grow vegetables like I did as a child. Central Texas water, wind, heat and horrible soil are against any effort I have ever made regarding growing my own food. 😦
Howdy from Oklahoma!
I have been following this blog for a long time, and somehow missed posting to this page. I grew up a farm girl in Nebraska but always yearned for warmer weather, so I moved south to Oklahoma in 1990. I am an at home wife looking after 10 acres; half pasture and yard, half woodlands. I garden and harvest. I have chickens. I have three rescue Japanese Chin who are seniors, so much of the time it’s like running a little nursing home! I am a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, occasionally taking in orphaned or injured mammals and birds (sorry snakes and lizards!). The little orphan that changed my life was Daisy deer. Much of my blog writing is a result of following her and the local deer herd. Observing the deer people and all of the critters of the woodlands has truly changed my life. I have discovered many messages and miracles in the woodlands and beyond. I loved you Celi… and thekitchensgarden from the first time I read your words. This fellowship is an amazing group of people. Support, encouragement, compassion and inspiration are just a few of the words that describe what I get here on a daily basis. Reading this blog is as important as that first cup of coffee – I just gotta have it!! 🙂
Hm, it looks like I, too, have not fulfilled my promise to post on this page. I’m in Kansas, not farming or even gardening (though my sons do) but instead working two library jobs and keeping an eye on Old Jules (www.sofarfromheaven.com). Sometimes I blog on http://www.jeannekastenstudio.com but lately I’ve focused my creative efforts on an artistic journal of sorts. I’m very glad to be here and would never miss a post! I feel very much a part of the “fellowship” and have enjoyed reading other blogs from people I’ve met over here. We are all connected, although we don’t always know it. Thank you, Celi.
Most of my mornings begin by connecting with this blog and all the farmy friends. Cecilia is a great storyteller who has a kind and gentle heart for all creatures including those who follow her. I love her outlook on life with all its ups and downs.
I was born and raised on a self-sustaining farm in Germany. I moved to the United States and first lived on the East Coast before I moved to California. Now I live in Santa Cruz in a beautiful coastal town south of San Francisco. I love to cook for my friends and family and I love to travel. Whenever I can, I like to visit my family in Germany.
I am from the northwest part of Missouri, just outside of Kansas City. I work downtown in a technical profession for a banking institution, but my husband and I have a place north of town we call Strawhouse Ranch on several acres where we live in a contemporary straw bale home in the middle of wildgrasses and native plant life and the rolling northern Missouri hills, tending to chickens, two horses and a mule, struggling with keeping bees, have numerous adopted cats, and three great dogs. We strive to keep everything as organic as possible. I have been following your blog for quite awhile, and came upon it through a link about beekeeping when you were feeding your pigs old comb. Then I saw the post about hanging a feedsack in the tree for your cows to wipe the flies away, and immediately applied it to my equines. After that I was hooked and check in with you every day, usually only a few moments after you’ve posted, since we are in the same time zone, and I’m up before the chickens as well. If I comment after this, it will be under PaulaB, to save keystrokes. Have a wonderful day!!
Hi, I’m Anne. So pleased to have found your blog through Press Publish, Cecelia. I live on the Scottish Hebridean island of Skye. I’m not a farmer, or crofter, but a recently retired primary school teacher. I’m also a writer of women’s fiction and a wife, mum and grandma. I describe myself as a subversive old bat with a kind heart.
Hi. I’m Taylor. I grew up in Illinois where my family still lives. I’m a writer and in my constant search for all things farm-ish by which to fuel my novel set in 1930 Nebraska, I came upon your delightful blog. So excited to read about your experiences; although farming has changed a lot since 1930, I’m sure certain things remain the same.
I am located in Albany, NY. I found you through the blog “A Winsome Journey”.
Good morning Cecilia, and everyone else of The Fellowship — I am finding my voice 🙂
I have been reading your wonderful blog on a daily basis since someone recommended it the day Tima and Tane (did I get that right?) found their way to the veranda, early this past winter; it is the very first thing I read each day and when I have been unable to I miss it terribly. You have always kept the tone upbeat and your photos are simply stunning. Right from the beginning I have felt we were old friends — funny, isn’t it; you never meet a person but they touch your heart and you immediately feel a connection. And, as well, I feel I know many of your regular contributors well: Kate and Deb, Audrey and Granny Mar — and, of course, Miss Whiplash, along with so many others. I think it has taken me so long to find my voice because I didn’t want to interrupt the wonderful back and forth comments sent by folks with whom you seem to have an obvious connection, although I have often found myself with a lot to say… hehehe
I live in a rather large city — Toronto, Canada — but did live in a rural area for many years before finding my way back to the city to be with my daughter and her small family. Blood is thicker than water, so it is said, and being close to a grandchild growing up has pulled me back to my roots although I do dreadfully miss the pastoral life at times. I am rather ancient (closer to 70 than 60 years, these days) and now retired from not so fulfilling jobs as a bookkeeper. I neither have a blog nor run a farm, large or small; I just simply love reading yours and look forward to your superb photos each day. Sometimes I laugh out loud, sometimes I mop a damp eye and then there are those days, like yesterday, that keep me sitting here thinking long and hard. Yes, yesterday’s (returning home from Portland and considering the difference of city life v. life on the farm) was so wonderful to read — your insight was marvelous. So thank you for your blog and, if I may, I would love to ‘hang out’ with you all 🙂
Good morning Cecilia, and everyone else of The Fellowship — I am finding my voice 🙂
I have been reading your wonderful blog on a daily basis since someone recommended it the day Tima and Tane (did I get that right?) found their way to the veranda, early this past winter; it is the very first thing I read each day and when I have been unable to I miss it terribly. You have always kept the tone upbeat and your photos are simply stunning. Right from the beginning I have felt we were old friends — funny, isn’t it; you never meet a person but they touch your heart and you immediately feel a connection. And, as well, I feel I know many of your regular contributors well: Kate and Deb, Audrey and Granny Mar — and, of course, Miss Whiplash, along with so many others. I think it has taken me so long to find my voice because I didn’t want to interrupt the wonderful back and forth comments sent by folks with whom you seem to have an obvious connection, although I have often found myself with a lot to say… hehehe
I live in a rather large city — Toronto, Canada — but did live in a rural area for many years before finding my way back to the city to be with my daughter and her small family. Blood is thicker than water, so it is said, and being close to a grandchild growing up has pulled me back to my roots although I do dreadfully miss the pastoral life at times. I am rather ancient (closer to 70 than 60 years, these days) and now retired from not so fulfilling jobs as a bookkeeper. I neither have a blog nor run a farm, large or small; I just simply love reading yours and look forward to your superb photos each day. Sometimes I laugh out loud, sometimes I mop a damp eye and then there are those days, like yesterday, that keep me sitting here thinking long and hard. Yes, yesterday’s (returning home from Portland and considering the difference of city life v. life on the farm) was so wonderful to read — your insight was marvelous. So thank you for your blog and, if I may, I would love to ‘hang out’ with you all 🙂
I’ve been reading and commenting for a while now, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten around to this part. Apologies for my late entry, but better late than never. Let me start by posting my official bio, and then we’ll make fun of that a bit:
“Whitney Brown is a dry-stone waller and folklorist based in Greenville, South Carolina. She spent her twenties bouncing between UNC and the Smithsonian, North Carolina farms and commercial kitchens, and hillsides and blacksmith shops in Wales. She wrote about Southern foodways and agriculture for her MA (UNC, 2010). Her current focus is the renewed interest in and revival of traditional craft, and in addition to running her own stone masonry business, she continues to pursue independent documentary projects in the US and Wales.”
So I spent a lot of my life in dirty Carhartts, heaving stones here and there, drinking lots of tea, admiring the scenery. I still do fieldwork as a folklorist, talking to people near and far about their work and hobbies and creative projects. I love to sail. I love to wander rugged countryside on foot. I love an after-work beer more than just about anything… Except maybe long, rose-scented baths. In other words, I lead a fairly self-indulgent but very hardworking life. I love animals and agriculture, too, but because I’m on the move so much I have to live vicariously through Miss C. (Bless her for this DAILY dose! I envy her discipline… I am not so consistent on my own blog.) So happy to be here amongst this crowd of warm, enthusiastic, generous people! You are my kind of folks. So, hello, everyone!
Hello from a New Zealand farm. Living here doesn’t make me a farmer, just as you wouldn’t want me in the operating theatre if I’d married a surgeon. But I love country life and living on a farm with a farmer does influence what I do. When asked what for my occupation I say I’m a bitser – I do bits of this and bits of that. Among the bits are writing (I’m a journalist by training though only sporadically now in practice, and a regular blogger); I’m on a couple of boards and there’s all the things that fall to your lot when you live with someone who lives on the job. We farm sheep, beef and dairy cattle and the wee picture which accompanies this is the view from my kitchen window.