An Accidental Country Girl

I grew up in the suburbs.

I hate the suburbs.

To be fair, I spent my younger, or formative, years in upstate New York in the country. But we lived in an allotment neighborhood, the closest thing to suburbia the area had. I loved my neighborhood growing up. I loved the freedom we had as kids. We were free to ride bikes, cross-country ski, sled, run around, build forts, play street hockey, whatever we could dream up...as long as we stayed inside the neighborhood. It was a big enough neighborhood that we rarely felt confined. Plus there were a ton of kids around my age. It was a fairly idyllic childhood.

And then we moved. At the traumatic middle school age, my family moved away from cold, snowy New York to warm, sunny Georgia. But we moved into the real suburbs, a planned community outside of Atlanta, or as I like to call it - "Suburgatory" (please tell me someone else remembers that tv show?). I hated it, even if it was warm & sunny. I vowed I would get out of there. I'd escape. My escape of choice? The big city. I'd go to college in downtown Atlanta. And I did. I even moved to the bigger city of Los Angeles after college. Turns out though, there were a few parts of my childhood I missed, especially the food. 

Turns out, when you live in the middle of nowhere, food is different. When the closest grocery store is 30+ minutes away, you find other sources of food. You grow a big backyard garden. You get eggs from the school music teacher who has yard chickens. You pick apples at the orchard next to the school. You get preserves from friends. You get ice cream & cheese from a local dairy. You get to know a local farmer who sells produce. I didn't realize it, but I grew up eating a lot of farm-fresh food. Thankfully when I lived in Los Angeles, farm-fresh food was trendy & easy to find. I lived very close to an amazing weekend Farmers' Market. Finally, I had eggs that tasted like eggs again! Since moving away from California, I've tried my best to buy these types of foods at the grocery store, but I find myself longing for backyard chickens and a huge garden. I want to get to know local farmers.

Well, we're buying a farmhouse. It wasn't our intention to end up in the country, but we found a house that's an amazing investment & we're going for it. We're about to close on a 1930's farmhouse, zoned agricultural, and surrounded by farms, but in desperate need to a full-house major renovation. The renovation process will be long & difficult, but I'm going to be a country girl!