We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Deanne Frieders. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Deanne below.

Deanne, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I left my corporate job to raise our children. Living in a rural area, there aren’t a lot of daycare options so it was a sensible thing to do.

I was raised by a family of entrepreneurs, so it was hard to not “have a job” (though parenting is the hardest job ever! Part of the work I did at home was making meals for our farm family which extended to my husbands, in-laws and on the farm helpers.

I knew how to cook, but I really didn’t know how to make meals that that could be delivered to them remotely, in actually cornfields. As I learned more about what worked and what didn’t, I started to share my adventures on facebook. I found out there were many people in the same situation as me and they were looking for meal ideas, too.

So the idea was born and I continued to share recipes specific to people in rural and agricultural areas.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I found that in the food and recipe content space, as well as agriculture, people were craving GENUINE connections. It can be isolating on the farm. I needed to connect with people because I was feeling isolated. Sharing food in that space along with social media allowed me to reach people I didn’t know and encourage them.

I discovered that sharing this food and farming thing could ALSO help others simplify their dinner time chaos.

I realized I was onto something here.

….I could streamline recipes to make things easier for every day life

….used those methods to start making meals our family would actually eat.

….and realized I could help others do the very same thing in their own kitchens.

Meeting like-minded individuals is one of my favorite things. It’s why I overcame my fear of public speaking and now travel the midwest, sharing cooking ideas, farm life and building community.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I ran my blog for two years without knowing what I was doing. I didn’t even realize you could make blogging. But once I figured THAT out, it opened a whole new opportunity to me. Sure, there weren’t jobs around me that I could go TO, but I could make one right in my own kitchen!

Once I started approaching my blog like a business instead of a hobby, I started to invest in technology training. I also leaned pretty hard into Facebook, which is still my strongest social media platform.

I recently hit 31k on Facebook which is a huge milestone to me. I remember when I hit 100 followers and my mind was blown! The number isn’t a big deal, but it does help mark growth and I appreciate that.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is where my primary audience is. It’s where I can connect and build relationships. Sure, I have recipes and those are great on my website. But the biggest connection I’ve been able to make is through social media. I have taken that growth and started to build retreats and pre-harvest get togethers. I’ve been able to build community and a place for like minded folks to hang out. In a way, I built this because I needed it but it turns out a lot of other people did, too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thisfarmgirlcooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisfarmgirlcooks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisfarmgirlcooks