Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Callie Longenecker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Callie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I have a lot of gratitude for my parents and how much love they poured into me and my siblings. I am one of 7 and we were all homeschooled through high school. I loved it. It gave me the opportunity to learn at my own pace while having the freedom to pursue other creative passions and experience everyday life alongside the rest of my family. At a young age, I had to learn how to manage my own time to make room for other endeavors like music, cooking and horsemanship. It was a great training ground for me and also a ton of work on their end – I’m really thankful they chose that route for our education.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

In a lot of ways I feel like I grew up sort of woven into the work I do now. My mother is a doula and birthed my siblings and I at home, so I was connecting with midwives and assisting home births from a young age. As a teen, I took on a lot of the cooking in our house and really fell in love with the kitchen. I never liked following recipes and I was always on a quest to make meals more flavorful and artful. As I got older, I knew I wanted to work with food and women in some way. So after high school I moved out west and studied botany, nutrition and herbal medicine, became a certified doula and attended culinary school. After my education, I spent years working in fine dining as well as Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy. I worked on organic farms, ran a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and started a private cheffing business for postpartum mothers. Fast forward to my work now – I was inspired to create Earthen Hands during my pregnancy with my son, weaving these passions into one vision. The brand is focused on farm-to-skin, food-based body care specifically crafted for mothers and babies. The idea is to offer skincare that is as safe as food, utilizing my culinary background, while serving the community of mothers and supporting local farmers. But this idea of body care goes far beyond a skin care line. I’m working on several different projects to expand, one of them being the Motherly Meals project. For certain products listed on my website, the proceeds go into a meal fund which allows a warm, nourishing meal to be delivered to a newly postpartum mother. The power of a well taken care of mother is often overlooked. It is a primary piece to a healthy society and food plays a significant role in this. Much more is coming, including a cookbook release (hopefully) next year along with some community events and workshops. I believe if we can create a life full of more honor and reverence for these two very foundational pieces – food and mothers – we can make significant strides for the future.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I used to be obsessed with comparison. I often found myself questioning my decisions and second guessing myself. I can remember this specific time I was attending an event and someone told me “You’re beautiful and what you do is beautiful. Don’t question it.” It’s simple but it really did stick with me and encouraged me to have a stronger belief in my capabilities. So I definitely had to unlearn this idea that life has a specific template. It doesn’t. We get to create our own and build something unique to our own passions and experiences. And our successes follow, big and small. Now I really embrace the way that I run my life and strive to only compare myself to who I was in the past, not anybody else. I just try to stay creative and inspired; and stay intentional and true to my vision, and trust that it will take me to good places.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

We can paint any picture we want. I think it’s easy to get stuck in patterns and rhythms that we outgrow. And also I think that we forget that we are allowed to change and modify things through the growth process. I’m somebody who likes to put my feet in several different things at once and it’s a pattern of mine to switch it up once I start feeling comfortable; so I feel like I’m in this constant state of discomfort. But I’ve been learning how to make this my ally instead of my enemy. Being in the kitchen always encourages me to do this – experiment and play without judgement. Something I’ve always dreamed of is teaching my kids to cook one day. And now that I have my son, I’m really eager to teach him how to cook and be playful in the kitchen with me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.earthenhands.com
• Instagram: @earthen.mother

Image Credits
I do all my own photography – all photos are taken by me (Callie Longenecker).