I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.

{image from the "dirt divas" article (the oregonian)}

THE DIRT: Farming ladies are currently the toast of the town, both locally and nationally. I end up reading about their adventures everywhere. Rather then regurgitate why these women rock, and dominate fields with rocks, I'll just point out some of the current pieces out there. So put down that awesome organic peach you're eating, and thank them, because they probably grew it for you. Eat it! Read it!

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"Dirt Divas: Meet the new farming faces in Oregon," MIX: Portland's Magazine of Food and Drink. {in the new AUG/SEPT issue, not up on the website as of 7/30}

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Would you believe it? She used to do communications for Nike. Well, maybe not, but this farmer left urban Portland, noisy happy hours and all its loveliness for the simple life, and she's blogging about it. The real simple life, not the one starring Paris Hilton.

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Eat.Drink.Better blogs on women farmers and why their population is swelling. The Oregonian does, too.

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The New York Times Magazine did a photo spread (not a fashion photo spread, mind you. That would have been totally retro journalism) on women farmers of New England. This other article, from 2005, is dated but has good info and hints toward's the femme de farming phenomenon.

And, as always, I must betray my women's studies training and remind you all that we'll be truly equal when the job title is just "farmer" and not a "woman farmer". They're not freak shows in a circus act, people! As one dainty lady farmer notes: "Women farmers aren't a special-interest group," she said. "Our issues are the same as all American farmers - we all want to keep our farms, and we have to make money from them. But women have come up with a lot of the new ways of doing it."