THE WOMAN BEHIND 'THIS FARM GIRL COOKS'

Coming up with quick, on-the-go meals is one of the many talents Deanne Frieders brings to the table.

- Lisa Foust Prater

That’s for dinner? That’s the ageold question, especially during busy seasons, like harvest. On her platform, “This Farm Girl Cooks,” Deanne Frieders is doing her best to offer fresh meal ideas to farm families. Whether it’s through her cookbook, recipe cards, website, podcast, email newsletter, or social media following, Frieders reaches tens of thousands of home cooks every month, sharing recipes, wit, and wisdom.

While she has mastered the art of the field meal, Frieders didn’t learn how planting and harvest affect mealtime until her late 30s, when she left her corporate job in the suburbs and married her husband, Ryan, a seventh-generation farmer in northern Illinois. The couple grow corn and soybeans with his parents and have a small herd of cattle. “I didn’t grow up on a farm. I grew up in a rural community, but really didn’t pay much attention to the corn growing at the end of the street,” she says. “Now I am a farmer, and I am living that lifestyle and everything that goes with it.”

What Makes a Field Meal?