Being a writer I love the stories but upon further reflection, it’s cover to cover, from tips to recipes to the food for the soul photography. I look forward to every issue and squirrel them away or share them with my daughter-in-laws.

When I get a new copy of MJF, I first look at every page to see all of the fun projects, recipes, and ideas. Secondly, I begin reading all of the articles. There is always a diversity of topics and perspectives that I find engaging. I also love the section on Seven Tips for a simple Life. There are always good ideas for everyday living that I enjoy learning about. One last thing is that I love it when the magazine uses graphics from the turn of the 20th Century. It was really MJF that turned my attention to this style and I have been exploring and loving it ever since.

I usually am so happy, when Mary Jane’s arrives, everything comes to a stop and if i can hold my patience for a few minutes to make a cup of tea, then it becomes my time (a very happy time to sit and enjoy each and every page of Mary Jane’s Farm.

I wait until I am alone and the house is quiet I open the new issue of MJF. I read through the table of contents to wet my appetite, then slowly enjoy every page. I always manage to learn something new from every issue! Thank you!!!

I am so excited when my magazine comes. It truly inspires me to live healthier, to give myself permission to take time to craft and to dream. Thank you!

I first look to see if you have any projects that I may be able to use my limited sewing talent. I had SUCH FUN a long while back when we made aprons!

The lemon wreath is crying to hang off my 1968 Aladdin trailer the next trip out!

When I receive my magazine in the mail I first read Here’s the Thing, then cut out the Cooking with Cast Iron recipes to add to my notebook and then just read cover to cover. Just so many good things about it! Love the recipes and have made a lot of them. What a great magazine!!

I enjoy the comraderie I feel when reading Mary Janes Farm . I look forward to each and every issue. Can’t wait for my mail lady to deliver each issue.

The craft or “DIY” parts of the magazine. So many great things to do that usually go with the season. I enjoy the recipes as well. So much fun!

Although I absolutely love the whole thing, I confess I head straight to the back. I love reading the last article by the City Farm girl. She has such a great perspective on life 🙂

Reminds me relaxing with a glass of lemonade in the Summer while I read Mary Jane’s magazine!

Healthier living articles definitely, but I love it all. Not currently a subscriber and having a difficult time finding it locally in the stores:(

I love the DIY projects–seems like I turn a page and exclaim, “OH! I’ve always wanted to learn how to do that!” And then looking at the recipes, I am THRILLED because my daughter has many food allergies and finally I have recipes I can share with HER and she likes them! Last but not least, is just the knowledge that I AM NOT ALONE, and there is a WHOLE SISTERHOOD out there of women who think like me and are interested in what interests me….not the nail polish/eye makeup/bling/fashion stuff. I like that ‘too’, but it is not who I am everyday. The chickens, pigs, ducks, turkeys, flower garden, veggie garden, building things then cooling off in the pond are Daily Life and finally there is a ‘sisters’ and ads that recognize this side of being today’s Woman!

Look forward to recipes and natural healing remedies. Cow facts.

When I get my Mary Jane’s Farm Magazine in the mail, I can’t wait to dive into the new ideas! Whether it’s a new craft, or a new website to visit. It’s always exciting! However, my favorite part of the magazine is the Cast Iron recipes! I’m always anxious to try them all!

This wreath is absolutely beautiful! It brings a breathe of fresh spring cheer to your home!

I look forward to the grounded, common sense guide that Mary Janes Farm magazine gives to this life we are all trying to get through! Fabulous and fun ideas abound! Thank you for all you provide for us!

I love reading the whole magazine! There is not another publication like it anywhere

I look forward to the relaxing feeling I get as I am swooped away from my reality to the calming and simplicity your magazine portrays.

I love reading about the crafts and usually try those yummy recipes in back. But when my magazine arrives in the mail I sit with a cuppa tea or coffee and read it from front cover to back. My favorite magazine.

My mother-in-law made the best lemon meringue pie. She had this wonderful tree in her back yard. Lemon squares were out of this world and there were always lemon cubes in her freezer. She lived in Tempe. She passed on Christmas at 93 and 10 1/2 months. She was well known in her neighborhood as she treated everyone with kindness.

My favorite part is the diy ideas. The photos are so clear and I like that you have plenty of them.

The very, very first thing I enjoy about Mary Janes Farm is the feel of the cover in my hands. I love the texture of the paper! I run my hand over it knowing that I will find treasures galore inside. I look so forward to the end of the day when I can sit down with a cup of cocoa or hot tea, open it up and get lost in its pages.

When I open MJF magazine, I first look at the cast iron cooking and then Rebecca’s “Here’s The Thing” article. After that I savor each and every article. My only problem is that I have to beat hubby to get it from the mailbox or I don’t get to see it for days! (tee, hee, hee!)

I like Rebekah Teal’s page best, I think. Unless you meant the part where I fix up a tea tray complete with chocolate, teapot, and sometimes a flower, and curl up in my favorite chair.

A dream is a wish your heart makes – Walt Disney

One cannot think well.
love well,
sleep well
if one has not dined well

Virginia Woolf

“When God closes one door, He opens another.” My grandmother used to tell me this all the time to help me through disappointments in my life. I’ve passed this on to my children and now to my grandgirls. It helps me to focus on something bigger than myself and my wants.

All you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt 🙂

“Compost” happens!

It’s not falling down that is a failure, it’s not getting back up.

My fav is : “As I look back on my life I realize that every time I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better. “

There’s no such thing as a normal life. There’s just life.

“The future is as bright as your faith.”

Today is a good day for a good day.

Stop and smell the roses!

Don’t celebrate the harvest you reap but the seeds you plant.

You plant corn…..you get corn!

Smiles are CONTAGIOUS be a CARRIER!

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” Walt Whitman

“Simplify, simplify.”

Henry David Thoreau

One of my favorite quotes:

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

Growing up had it’s ups and downs, as a young teen i read John Irvings “Hotel NH”. Keep passing the open windows has always meant something deep to me.

My Mom used to tell me this whenever I was going thru a difficult time: “This too shall pass”. She was always my rock even when I didn’t realize it. Miss her everyday!

A friend had given me a huge box of lemons and limes and they were already starting to go bad, so pucked out the bad and made it all into lemon lime aide and put into cubes in the freezer. We had lemon lime aide all through the summer and enjoyed each and every glass.
Also thought of my friend with each glass!

Mucking out the goat barn is hard work and the “leavings” means a rather large compost heap. I started running out of room for it all. I now have enough compost for my garden plus my friends that garden are enjoying the compost too. Thinking about bagging and selling some of the more ripe and finished compost……hmm, may be a start of a few extra dollars in my pocket

I would have to say it’s when I became pregnant with my second son. It was really hard on me becoming pregnant only 2 months after delivering my first son. And many challenges arose as the pregnancy progressed. Now I wouldn’t change it for the world! I love having my boys only 11 months apart. They will be the best of friends and already love each other so much. My hands are full but my heart is fuller!

There had been a problem between my parents and my aunts for years, and they did not talk at all due to some differences. At my grandmas funeral I approached one of my aunts and she and another aunt and I visited, and gradually began to get together more and more. We got to know each other, making up for lost years – it has been such a remarkable inspiration, and I am so thrilled that my life has been enriched by them.

Lemons–to lemonade:
Several years ago I decided to go back to the University of Utah to complete my bachelors degree. My plan was to teach kindergarten upon graduation. I had no idea how much math was involved! It had been nearly 25 years since high school math but I dug in and
worked really hard. I am happy to say I did graduate and enjoyed nine great of teaching kindergarten!

Life always brings lemons! BUT the help of God and others will get you through. I’ve been widowed twice and now have a wonderful adventures man that has taken me all over the world. You always look for the positive instead of the negative!

The biggest lemon in my life is my chronic illness. The lemonade has been drawing ever nearer to the Lord, and the need to stay close to family. I didn’t ‘move out’ like most in their late teens – due to my health, and so here I am on the farm with my parents and brother. While I fondly imagine a life free of fatigue and pain, I dream of it here on the farm; imagine all my mom and I could get accomplished!

I lost my job, I was scared about the future so what’s a girl do she cans it. I made 48 pints of pear preserves using a recipe from my husbands grandfather. The lemony flavor was wonderful and everyone I gave them to thought they were amazing.

This past year my sister passed away from cancer. I followed through with her wishes and became involved in our local Relay for Life. (raises money for cancer research)

I got a flat tire on a back road. While I was waiting for my son to arrive and change it I picked a pail of huckleberries.

I would make my little bedroom settee gorgeous with these pillows and make lemonade to sit with my friends & share together. Life is just full of opportunities to make lemonade and I find it all a wonderful challenge. The fact of life is we will always be handed lemons at times and God will always have our lemonade on hand to refresh and rejuvenate us in the toughest of times.

I developed Rheumatoid Arthritis at age 17. I have tried to make lemonade for 42 years. Some years are better than others. My husband married me knowing the future was uncertain and had stuck with me for 35 years. God did not bless us with children so we try to make more lemonade. Some days are better than others.

At a time when we were having to pinch pennies I really wanted to do something special for our anniversary. Instead of spending money eating out I fixed a picnic lunch and handmade a card for my husband. We went to the park and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day together. This is what memories are made of.

Hubby was diagnosed with cancer almost 4 years ago, just 3 months after breaking his back in 2 places from a drunk hitting him and daughter. Up to that point he had never been sick more than a handful of days. We have had to make some major changes since this happened, most in the last year. Selling our home to relocate to a more city area for medical as well as going into a smaller and single story home (stairs are no longer his friend). He has had to medically retire early a good 10 years from a job he loved, can no longer drive, no longer plays in a band, skiis and we sold our river camp as it was just to much for him with upkeep and the travel to get there. On a plus we own our home and are debt free …. broke, but it could have all been so much worse! So we are together and happy and take things a bit easier now and are grateful for the lemons we had saved, to make the lemonade.

the car breaking down… guess Im taking a beautiful walk today

When I found out that I had MS. I thought my life was over. Then I learned that I can live a normal life. I just take one day at a time.

I went into the Navy thinking you could go anywhere you wanted to. I was really disappointed to find out I’d be going to Bethesda Md. instead of Hawaii. All that “brass”! No one thought I’d get through it because I don’t bow and scrape. What I DO do though, is to find all types of people genuinely valuable and interesting. It was pretty cold in Md. sometimes, no beaches or pineapples I’d so hoped for; but I thrived because the people were so awesome.

The first thing I think of when looking at these beautiful pillows is that lemon’s are so very good for our diet. They aide in digestion of food and help to make our bodies more alkaline. Once again, God got it right!

When life got/gets tough, my “lemonade” is pouring myself a tall l, cool glass of my Catholic Faith!

A job I took shortly out of grad school to be closer to home happened to be a lemon of a job. I didn’t have one nice thing to say after work each day. It took me a few months of this before I said to myself…”Self, if you don’t want to do anything about it, you don’t get to complain about it.” I took to the internet to find my “perfect dream job” by googling physical therapy clinics, not wanted ads in my field of work. I narrowed it down to three clinics that I really liked their approach to healing and I sent my resume to them asking if they had any positions available. The number one place I had wanted to work for had just taken down their wanted ad a week earlier because they hadn’t had any response. I was hired within the week. And then I had lemonade. Seven years later, I’m still with that clinic.

When I sit alone feeling down with no family nearby. I make a cold lemonade with peppermint leaves over ice. Just makes me feel better.

We had a heavy snow and when it stopped, I had 2 feet. I have a nice snow blower but the problem is a 280 ft stone driveway! If a larger stone gets caught in the blade, a “shear pin” breaks to keep the blades from twisting. There are 2 shear pins, one on each side… Anyway, one shear pin snapped which disabled one side of the auger which pulls the snow into the shoot, so that side was useless. I tried replacing the shear pin, but it was too cold and windy to keep my hands steady enough to knock the old pin out. I decided to use the snowblower by only keeping the working side against the snow – it took me a little longer, but I was able to clear the driveway and the shear pin will be replaced when they weather is nicer! IT WAS HEADING TO BE A LEMON DAY, BUT A LITTLE PATIENCE AND ONE SIDE THAT WORKED SAVED THE DAY, SO IT WAS A LEMONADE DAY!!!

There was a time when I had went back to school and had my heart set on it. After a couple of years into it, some circumstances had happened and I decided to leave school and go back to work. I was crushed because I hadn’t finished. But it was shortly after that, that I realized even though it didn’t go as I planned, I gained a lot of knowledge through it, found my best friend, and because I went to work, I connected with a high school friend who in turn became the love of my life. I’m so glad that lemons that happened made the sweetest lemonade! 😊

When we moved to a sparsely populated area in Arizona and my children were young, I thought it would be a time of loneliness and boredom. We met the friendliest, most encouraging group at a small rural church. We have never learned more and felt so needed as we did in that town.

WAS VERY BLESSED THIS PASSED YEAR AS our Meyer’s lemon tree had almost 500 lemons! Not only did we make lemonaide, but we gave away loads of lemons.

What wouldn’t I use it in! I use honey in my tea, making granola bars, drizzled over yogurt….I would use a little to make a facial mask!

OH I LOVE HONEY and to try out this brand would be wonderful! I’d would savor it on English muffins. I love to have honey on English muffins with all the little holes the honey can go into, bliss in every bite!

I would keep one jar for myself and share the other two with my daughter-in-laws. I love honey. I use it in tea, lemonade, baking, glazing, facial treatment, and just by the spoonful. Here in Michigan they sell it at the farmer’s markets. Even raw honey. I have a collection of different kinds. My favorite is Star Flower Raw Honey. It a very light off white honey.

We LOVE honey in our household! I love to sweeten my herbal tea with a dollup of honey…also use it with Apple cider vinegar to make a “tonic” for digestion. If I win, I would share some with my son and his wife 😌

I use honey for just about everything that involves sweetener!

A good time of year to have honey, as it has many good medicinal qualities as a comfort to a sore throat, helps with a cough and “fights” hunger on a biscuit!

I use honey by the gallons. Always in my tea and lots of baked goods. Best cut out sugar cookies made with honey. Great with lemon juice for sore throat. Or I just love it by the spoonfuls!

If I won the honey, I would bake a bunch of muffins and take them to the dyalisis center to share with all my sisters friends.

Ahhhh…a teaspoon a day keeps the Deb very happy! Did you know Deborah means “Bee”? How appropro! I would also use it in baked goods , oatmeal, tea, many, many things….so 3 jars would be a good start!

I would first share one jar with my parents and the second with my in laws. Then I would make us a honey glazed ham very first. Then enjoy some in my teas. Honey is a great sweetener.

Love it in my oatmeal, yogurt and just plain on a spoon.

I would keep one and share the other two jars with my loved ones. There is a place near us that sells local honey on the honor system. There is a wooden box at the end of his driveway that reads “take honey, leave money”. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world, if everyone was of that mindset?!!

Honey is a staple around here… between tea, oatmeal, and baking, not to mention it is great to put on your skin right after a small burn in the kitchen… all the moisture beads up on top, so it doesn’t blister 🙂 With lots of kids running around, someone seems to get burnt at least once a month. I’d also like to give one of the jars to an elderly couple that lives across the way. They have been such a blessing to us since we’ve moved here!

I love honey, have it every day in my tea, and have some just to soothe a sore throat.

Love honey!!! I would give one to my sweet mom, one to my son, and keep one! I love honey in my smoothies, makes a great cough medicine, and just recently have discovered the joys of baking with honey! =)

Honey! I love it;in tea, on pork,in our nutriterian smoothies,on biscuits etc,tec. With all these uses and more, I would first make a hot cup of raspberry zinger tea with honey, set myself down at the kitchen table for my second honey adventure and mix up a recipe of honey,almond and oatmeal facial mask, then smooth it all over my face and neck and wait for the lovely was to happen.Thirdly I would take the remainder of the facial mixture, add a tbl spoon more of honey,and smooth it over a pine cone to attract honey bees for my future bee hive!

I would add it to my homemade lemon ginger iced tea – yum!

Yum! We use honey in tea and in baking and cooking. Especially wonderful for glazes!!I would keep one jar for my ‘honey’ , my hubby😊, one to my mom, and one to my dear friend.

I always use raw organic honey in my coffee and tea. I put it in smoothies and often use it as a sugar substitute. I also use it on cuts to prevent infections. I always keep it in my pantry and share it with my honey. If I win the honey I will use it for all these things and probably more. I haven’t tried this brand yet, but I would love to because I have tried their fine nut butters.

I would use it in my herbal tea, in making granola and yogurt, on corn bread and in desserts. I have also used it in canning and for cough medicine. So many uses. 🙂

I love honey. It is great for soar throats and coughs. Definately share with my daughter

I would use it in tea and baking.

The kids love honey and would love baking and eating it. Three jars would go far.

Three jars of honey would prevent all my spring and summer allergies.

Well my husband and I would eat it right up. I love it and use it daily in my tea. He loves it on bread and biscuits. We both love in yogurt. I have a tomato soup receipe that uses honey and balsamic vinegar together. Just love honey.

Congratulations Marcella! Enjoy your new herbal sampler.