Raising a healthy Jane (or just being a healthy grown-up Jane) comes from good food and proper nutrition. Grab your aprons, I’m on kitchen duty with food to spare and recipes to share! When time allows, here’s where you’ll find one of my how-to-convert-to-an-organic-diet recipes.
Winnie Nielsen says: Those apples are so beautiful at your farm!! What kind are they? They look so big and pretty with the red and yellow/green ends. I bet they are perfect to grab off the tree for a snack too.
So, I got out my apple book and here are my two guesses for what variety these apples are: Empire; Jonagold. Did I get it right?
MaryJane says: We’ll need to get you out here to ID our apples, Miss Winnie Appleseed. I inherited quite a few apple and fruit trees (an entire orchard actually) when I bought my original 5 acres in 1986 from two bachelor brothers who were born and died here. The first year I was here, I planted more fruit trees but lost those records in my house fire.
Winnie Nielsen says: Wow, how lucky you are to have such a beautiful orchard. I wish I could come and try to identify your apples! Hey, I like the title, “Winnie Appleseed” as I sit here with my new Farmgirl Shirt on!!
As far as identifying apples, I am actually going to get a mini lesson on October 1, when I visit the orchard of John Bunker in Palermo, Maine. He has devoted his life to growing apples and restoring regional heirloom varieties. I purchased his book from their online store, wrote a message about how much I was an apple enthusiast, he signed the book, and I read it like a textbook. When I found out we were going to be near him on our upcoming trip, I wrote and asked if I could visit(sound familiar?) his orchard and he said YES!! Whoop!! Lessons at the feet of a true walking apple encyclopedia! My latest books from the Virginia trip have great color photos, so that is what I used this am to guess. I wonder if I am right on the varieties?
MaryJane says: I received an advance galley for a Storey book called “Grow a Little Fruit Tree; simple pruning techniques for small-space, easy-harvest fruit trees.” If I send it to you, can you write a review for us?
Winnie Nielsen says: Cherry tomatoes are like candy. Sweet, juicy, and sun warmed!
Of course, the REAL Mary Jane candies are pretty yummy too!!
Winnie Nielsen says: I love Rainbow Chard. It is a vegetable that we eat almost every week one way or another.
Karlyne says: I just love these containers…
Winnie Nielsen says: When I was growing up, gelatin salads were often the piece de resistance at a family meal!
Kay (Old Cowgirl) Montoya says: Wow, its morning and you are making me very hungry. It looks so good.
Cindi Johnson says: Such a lovely presentation – a feast for the eyes and nutritious artwork that seems to have been forgotten. Oh how I would love to find some of these old gelatin molds! Who’s hoarding them all? 🙂
MaryJane says: If I ever feel the urge to purge, I’ll ring you up!
Carolyn says: How do I purchase ChillOver Powder? I subscribe to the magazine.
Winnie Nielsen says: Fun photo and I love the straw hats!
How sweet is this?
Priscilla Wegers, copy editor for my magazine, recently gave me this sweet little box of Mary Jane taffy. Now made by Necco, the company that gave us Necco Wafers, Clark Bars, and more, this candy has been around since 1914, first manufactured by the Charles N. Miller Company. It was a favorite penny candy sold in general stores in the first half of the 1900s.
I’d seen the individually wrapped little nuggets of peanut-butter taffy chews before, but I hadn’t ever seen the little box. Miller named the candy after his favorite aunt, Mary Jane, and the same illustration of little Mary Jane has appeared on the wrappers since 1914.
According to the Necco website. “Through the years, countless school children learned about the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Those same kids would run out of school to the closest store and buy as many Mary Jane candies as their pocket change would permit. Little did they know, the lesson they just learned and the delicious sweet they were about to unwrap had a common history. Miller got his start by making candies with his father in their Boston home, a home whose previous owner happened to be Paul Revere. And coincidentally, today we make these favorite chews in the Massachusetts city of Revere!”
Thanks for this sweet little piece of Mary Jane history, Priscilla.
I might add that Mary Jane candy is the reason my business name, MaryJanesFarm, doesn’t have an apostrophe or spaces. Mary Jane was already trademarked so I couldn’t be Mary Jane’s Farm or even MaryJane’s Farm. Once I turned all three words into a stylized “logo” of sorts, I was able to use my name, MaryJane, as part of my business name. Also, there’s a Mary Jane Bread, that’s been a mainstay for many years in the South, that I couldn’t infringe upon.
Winnie Nielsen says: I love this little history lesson, MaryJane! Mary Jane candies were such a big part of the candy culture of my growing up and a staple of Halloween trick or treat give outs. I have never seen the big box, shown here, either. The candy was always just the little nuggets for a penny in some little store. The Mary Jane bread is something I do not ever remember from growing up in Charlottesville. Virginia sort of sits on the fence about being “in the south” , and perhaps this bread was found more in the lower tier states like Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. Love that wrapper with the little girl on it! Thanks for sharing this fun bit of history and I am going to have to find me a Mary Jane to eat one day soon. It’s been a very long time since I enjoyed one!
MaryJane says: I have a little something sitting by the back door to send you. I’ll include a Mary Jane!
Here are the Bakery Locations and its distribution:
http://www.flowersfoods.com/FFC_CompanyInfo/AboutFlowersFoods/TeritoryMap.html
Any of these breads ring a bell (all made by Flowers Foods who make Mary Jane Bread)?
Flowers’ top brands include Nature’s Own, Whitewheat, Wonder Bread, Cobblestone Bread Co., Tastykake, Mrs. Freshley’s, European Bakers, and Mi Casa and regional brands that include Merita, Home Pride, Butternut, Country Kitchen, Barowsky’s Organics, ButterKrust, Captain John Derst’s, Evangeline Maid, Sunbeam, Bunny, Mary Jane, Aunt Hattie’s, Holsum, and Mary Jane & Friends.
Winnie Nielsen says: Yes, Nature’s Own is everywhere here and we had a Wonder Bread Bakery in Charlottesville when I was little. Periodically, they made these promotional mini loaves and Mom would get me one. It made for great tea party sandwiches with stuffed animals or dolls! The other brands I am not familiar with. We see a lot of Arnolds and Pepperidge Farm products.
Looking forward to some Farmgirl Mail that will have a MaryJane to enjoy!!
My oh My! My absolutely, positively, favorite candy,right after the silly named ” Squirrel Nut Zippers”. Very similar candies too. Maryjane candies are very popular here and I can even buy them in bulk in my local food market. We also have in the next town over a wonderful candy and nut outlet store called Weaver’s
http://www.weavernutsweetsandsnacks.com/
heres where you find necco products 🙁 even the Squirrel Nut Zippers! :
http://www.weavernutsweetsandsnacks.com/brands/NECCO.html
They sell all the old fashioned stuff you thought was gone gone gone.They are evidently a huge wholesale operation but this store is where you can buy in smaller amounts. Very fancy nuts roasted on the premises, all your holiday favorites ( go before Easter, Christmas and Halloween to have some flash-from-the-past fun ) When you go in the store everyone is sighing in ecstasy , it’s such fun , especially to see older folk relive their childhoods.
akk -oops dont know where that frowny face came from -im all about happy with this post!
MaryJane says: 🙂
thanks! needed that happy face for a happy talk about a sweet candy
Love the candy! Not familiar with the bread, but then I’m not in or from the South.
Thanks for the “rest of the story”!
CJ
I grew up in the Canal Zone in the Panama Canal area, and I have strong nostalgia for the Enriched Mary Jane White Bread and I finally see it on your site as I remember it as a child. God Bless ! I have been searching but to no avail is the first time I see the bread I ate has a child. We ate it with marmalade, peanut butter and butter. When time was hard it tasted good just plain. How can I get to purchase it or get the recipe, I was born in the 50″s that was wonder bread for me can you help me.
MaryJane says: The recipe will be coming out in my upcoming bread book, Wild Bread, available for pre-order to be shipped mid-February, http://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/store/p/1306-Wild-Bread.aspx Thanks!
Winnie Nielsen says: Love this idea of the aprons with a pocket made from vintage hankie! Adorable.
Yes, the vintage hankie is too adorable for a pocket especially tied like that! I can hardly wait to try that idea . And I have stacks of hankies to use that is for sure. Also want to make a quilt using them.
connie-killarney says: That is Farmgirl to Me, Barefoot and an Apron on!! Love the picture!! and I too love the Hankie for the pocket! Both are just fabulous!
Last Saturday, when we went to our local Farmers’ Market, Mom and I got a friendly reminder to dance like no one’s watching …
Where do you think these two got their moves? 😉
Winnie Nielsen says: Don’t you just love the freedom that children have to just respond to music? They make it look so easy!
That is my favorite quote -from a song no less. I used to sign all my emails with it . And it is so the truth!
Cindi Johnson says: I wish I had been fast enough with my video earlier this spring when a little girl walking in front of me walked under low hanging willow branches about to burst into leaf. They must have tickled her as she stopped, reached up into the branches and started to twirl while swaying her arms, giggling at the feel. It was such a beautiful dance between nature and innocence! I smiled the rest of the day. I think the tree did, too.
MaryJane says: Wonderful image!
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.
I adore beets. try them slow roasted in the oven with a bit of sea salt and olive oil , they turn out so sweet and deeply wonderful. So much better than boiling them . And you don’t have to peel them- the jackets just slip off when they are done. how easy is that?
Ohh, I love beets! The golden ones are so sweet when roasted too. Plus they look beautiful in salads for Fall.
yeah you either love beets or hate them I have found with people, glad you are a beet lover like me Winnie!