Thank you so much for the article about the New Year’s Eve traditions around the world and what different states like to drop at midnight to ring in the New Year [in our “Giving Truth” Dec/Jan 2022 issue]. After reading your article (and sharing it with several people), I decided to get in on the fun. Our family figured out the time difference in the different states and then celebrated the Mt. Olive, North Carolina, pickle drop; the Sarasota, Florida, pineapple drop; and the Eastover, North Carolina, flea drop. My single sister and I even attempted the Belarus tradition of a rooster picking the next young lady to be wed. We used my rooster ornament, blindfolded one another, spun in a circle 10 times, and walked with the rooster in our hands in the direction of two piles of corn that were labeled with our names. Turns out there might be a double wedding in our future! Thank you for the great magazine. My mother and I love reading it, and my Tennessee relatives get a good chuckle that this California girl loves the country so much.
– Becky, e-mail
I love vintage, which is just one of many reasons I enjoy your magazine. It’s homey and comforting and cozy! Ahhhh ...
– Margaret, RaisingJane.org
I just wanted to tell you how much I love this magazine. My dad gave it to me last year after I found a copy at the library and devoured it, and I’m continuing the subscription this year as well as ordering it for my sister, who really, really wants a cow and is a DIY mom wannabe farmgirl!
– Sally, e-mail
I have subscribed to your magazine for many years and have saved all of the issues. I read it from cover to cover, and the day it comes, my work is done as soon as I get my mail.
– Joan, RaisingJane.org
I was gifted with MaryJane’s Ideabook years ago, and it still brings me pleasure to page through it nearly 20 years later. A worthy and muchappreciated gift!
– Kate, e-mail
On a whim, I subscribed to a magazine some years ago that looked promising. Little did I understand what MaryJanesFarm would come to mean to me.
The first issue arrived and I stole a quiet moment to look through its pages. Then the tears began to flow. There was a freedom, intelligence, genuine joyfulness, and celebration of the farm woman’s strength and femininity in those pages. You gave me permission to be a woman AND a farmer. I saw your smiling face and long hair and your love of cows and all things farm and felt that we were friends. See, I have long hair, too, and I refuse to go into old age with it lopped off. I’ve earned every gray highlight.
I turned 68 this year. I have raised children (3) and grandchildren (8) on this small farm (just 33 acres) with my husband of 50 years. We were city people with a dream in 1988 who jumped in with both feet and bought a Jersey cow and calf to eat the grass growing in the fields. My husband held a “city job,” so I became the farmer. I went to the library and checked out every book on farming and animal husbandry, veterinarian manuals, old cookbooks, and food preservation pamphlets, and read each one at least three times. My neighbors were patient. The feed-mill people were even more patient, and amused. (“You going to bring that cow in this winter and put Hubby in the barn?”) I learned about a special kind of knowledge farm people possess that most of the world discounts because it can’t be learned from books. It’s absorbed from the cradle by watching, listening, living. These farmers have forgotten more than I will probably ever know about this life.
When I finally composed myself after I read that first issue, fed the family and the critters lunch, put the laundry on the line, and started dinner, I took a moment to find the art box under my bed. The next day, a watercolor portrait of my Jersey materialized by hands that had not held a brush in years.
I so look forward to this lovely magazine’s every issue. Your work has made a difference in my life, and I felt it was important to tell you this.
We are both entering a new phase of existence. Our grandchildren are becoming capable people, our children are shouldering some of our responsibilities. Your magazine is reaching out to a new generation. I am teaching my grandkids the simple pleasures of blowing out eggs for Christmas ornaments and other crafts, using your magazine as inspiration. Quilling, decoupage, simple hand-stitching, and candle wicking are on our list. We are canning together, too—even the boys!
Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being YOU.
– Kathleen, e-mail