Meet The Contributors

Marillyn Beard

Marillyn Beard is a deaf missionary wife & mama living on a farm in Honduras with her wonderful husband and 4 beautiful kids.  Together they are heading up a ministry called Rancho Oasis for Youth. Marillyn takes care of her family naturally by using herbs, homeopathy, essential oils and a wholesome diet. She loves to bake wholesome treats, whip up homemade ice cream, experiment with lacto-ferments, work in the garden and care for the farm animals with her family. Between washing diapers, cooking, and caring for her family she shares her interesting & noisy life at Just Making Noise.

Jacquelyn Byers

Jacquelyn blogs at www.littleowlcrunchymomma.blogspot.com about her adventures as a wife, mother, healthy cook and thinker. She is a home-birthing, non-vaccinating, baby-wearing, elimination communication-practicing, co-sleeping, Weston Price-following mom.

Kristin Celeste

Kristin Celeste Shroeger is the untrained executive chef, recipe creator, photographer, dishwasher and blogger of The Intentional Minimalist.  The Intentional Minimalist encourages farm-to-table cooking with local, seasonal and sustainable produce while featuring Kristin’s signature homemade infused oils, dressings, marinades, pestos and sauces.  Recipes are created with ingredients sourced weekly from regional farms paired with locally produced artisan products.

As a three time cancer survivor, Kristin contributes her wellness to the benefits of good health through nutrition from eating fresh unprocessed seasonal produce.  The Intentional Minimalist has received both local and national acclaim for flavorful and creative farm-to-table recipes while sourcing local, sustainable and seasonal ingredients.  To learn more, please visit Kristin’s blog The Intentional Minimalist.

Jackie Cleary

Like all old fashioned farmsteads, the heart of Auburn Meadow Farm is the kitchen. Jackie Cleary is a cook, farmer and writer eating her way around her small farm in Western Pennsylvania. Ever seeking that perfect circle that is a truly sustainable farmstead, Jackie’s adventures in food and farming are constant lessons in humility and local deliciousness.

 Visit Jackie and her brood of old-fashioned livestock anytime atAuburnMeadowFarm.com.

Halle Cottis

Halle Cottis @ Whole Lifestyle Nutrition currently lives in Wisconsin with her husband Dave and three girls.  Halle is passionate about creating recipes for her family using the healthiest most nourishing ingredients!  She published a cookbook in 2011 that focuses on real food recipes that are made simple.  Halle and her family grow a lot of their own organic food and she also helps teach others how to start and maintain their own organic gardens.  She shares delicious healthy recipes and offers holistic lifestyle classes to help people transition to a healthier lifestyle.  You can connect with Halle on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest and Google+.

Bethany Glosser

Bethany is a Jesus-follower, servant of the Most-High God, wife, mother of three, medical laboratory technologist by trade & homemaker by choice, homeschooler, and church youth leader. She loves the simple life, preparing and eating wholesome nourishing foods, cloth diapering, and is a budding gardener, herbalist, & urban homesteader. Occasionally she attempts her hand at crocheting & knitting, though she still has to “relearn” each time. Her duty is to “train up [children] in the way [they] should go” (Proverbs 22:6) according to the Word of God. Her drive is to carry out Titus 2:3-5, “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.” Her dream is to see this generation rise up and stand for Jesus (Romans 1:16).

Mely Martinez

Mely was born and raised in Mexico and has lived in the Washington DC Metropolitan area for a few years now. She is a homeschooling mom of a teenage boy and combines her passion for cooking and sharing her Mexican heritage at her blog, Mexico in My Kitchen.

Miranda Rommel

Miranda Rommel lives in Philomath, OR with her husband, corgi and house turtle. On the quest for the homestead of their dreams, her family is currently biding their time in a cramped apartment where she blogs, cooks, trains her dog and manages 3 small businesses all while somehow managing not to kill her husband while they share one desk. Read about all these activities at her blog, Pocket Pause.

Foy Spicer

Foy is a bit of a nomad who has found her way back to the Midwest.  Indiana to be specific.  She lives with her husband and baby daughter in a small town with a remarkable local food scene.  A horticulturist by training, she currently works for produce at a local CSA and is converting her quarter acre yard into a kitchen garden.   She writes about recipes featuring seasonal local food, how to preserve the harvest and tips for growing fruit, herbs and veggies at Foy Update – Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat.

Katie Stanley

Katie Stanley is a dorm “mama” to 13 amazing girls ages 9 to 18 at a home and school for the Deaf in Baja California, Mexico. She is happiest in the kitchen creating nourishing meals and home remedies or outside with at least one of her girls at her side. Katie is passionate about real food, herbs and simple living. You can find her blogging about all these things and more on her blog, Mexican Wildflower where she is living simply by God’s grace.

Teri Vogeli

Svetlana Watkins

Born and raised in Serbia, Svetlana received a BA in English and Italian from the University of Belgrade. Growing up in Serbia the milk was fresh from the cows, the produce was local and untainted by chemicals, and the meat was sustainably raised and naturally fed, grazing and pecking in the back yards. With three daughters, Svetlana does her best to teach them the best ways to walk through life. By enjoying and respecting nature’s bounty, to be kind, and giving – albeit proud and independent.  You can find Lana blogging at Bibberche.