Welcome to Lemons & Lavender Farm—a place for nourishing recipes, simple handmade living, and finding beauty in the ordinary work of home and family.
I’m Deborah, a wife, mother of six, homeschool mom, and lifelong maker living with my family on seven acres in rural Middle Tennessee. Here, I share the recipes and rhythms that help me care for a busy household: fresh-milled breads and muffins, sourdough, comforting family meals, traditional foods, and the occasional handmade project.
This isn’t a picture-perfect homestead. It’s a real home filled with children, half-finished projects, flour on the counters, chickens in the yard, and plenty of recipes that require more than one test before I’m willing to share them.
What You’ll Find Here
Food is at the heart of Lemons & Lavender Farm. I love taking simple ingredients and turning them into something warm, beautiful, and worth gathering around.
Many of the recipes you’ll find here are made with freshly milled whole grains or sourdough. Others are simply dependable, from-scratch meals and treats that work for a large family. I test my recipes in my own kitchen, serve them to the people around my table, and keep adjusting until they are something I feel good about sharing with you.
Along the way, I also share pieces of our life at home—homeschooling, fermenting, growing and preserving food, caring for our animals, making things by hand, and slowly learning how to live more intentionally with what God has given us.
You don’t need a perfect kitchen, a picture-perfect home, or years of experience to begin. My hope is that you leave here feeling encouraged and confident enough to try something new.
Our Life on the Farmstead
My husband, Trey, and I are raising our six children on seven acres in rural Middle Tennessee. Our days are full in every sense of the word. We homeschool, care for our chickens, duck, and cat, work on our home and property, run a family business, and try to keep everyone fed somewhere in between.
When we bought this property, it needed a great deal of work. We pulled up carpet, repaired walls, painted, laid hardwood floors, cleaned up the land, and made it livable one project at a time. Years later, there is still plenty we would like to do—and I suspect there always will be.
Making our first house a home—one room, one floor, and one family project at a time.
That unfinished quality has become part of the story. A good life doesn’t begin when the house is finished, the garden is thriving, or every plan has worked out. It is already happening in the middle of the mess: around the dinner table, beside the mixing bowl, during lessons with the children, and in the small acts of care repeated each day.
How This Began
My love for country life began when I was a child visiting my great-grandparents’ farm in West Tennessee. I loved going out to see the pigs—even if, according to my mother, they smelled terrible. Those visits planted a dream of living in the country, raising animals, growing food, and creating a home closely connected to the land.
My love for food developed alongside that dream. In college, I imagined that I might one day own a bed-and-breakfast on a farm. I took cooking classes, watched endless episodes of Good Eats, and discovered how much I enjoyed making food that was both delicious and beautiful.
Years later, while trying to understand and improve my eczema, I began studying the ways food and traditional preparation methods can affect our bodies. That led me to sourdough, freshly milled grains, cultured foods, fermented vegetables, milk kefir, kombucha, and a deeper interest in preparing wholesome food from scratch.
I am still learning. That is an important part of this space. I don’t want to share recipes simply because they look beautiful in a photograph. I want to understand why they work, be honest when they don’t, and give you the details that will help them work in your kitchen too.
Why Lemons & Lavender?
Lemons feel bright, fresh, and full of life. They remind me of summer sunshine, food bursting with flavor, and making something useful from what might otherwise seem sour.
Flowers gathered from our homestead—three garden roses and a seasonal arrangement made from what was growing around us.
Lavender invites us to slow down. Its beauty, fragrance, and quiet usefulness remind me to notice the good already growing around me.
Together, lemons and lavender reflect what I hope this space will be: cheerful but peaceful, practical but beautiful, and honest about both the sweetness and the sour parts of life.
Nourishing the Heart
My Christian faith shapes the way I see food, family, creativity, and home. I believe the ordinary work of caring for people matters to God. A loaf of bread, a lesson patiently taught, a meal carried to the table, or a home opened to another person can all become acts of love and faithfulness.
Life here is not always slow or simple, and I don’t always handle it gracefully. But God continues to meet me in the unfinished places. My hope is that Lemons & Lavender Farm offers more than instructions for what to make. I hope it encourages you to recognize the purpose and beauty within the life you are already living.
A Few Fun Facts About Me
- Chocolate is still my favorite evening treat, although lemon is a very close second.
- I once taught ballroom dancing—even though I had no dance experience before taking the job.
- I was part of a pottery studio cooperative near Nashville and still love handmade pottery.
- I lived in Atlanta for two years and genuinely enjoyed city life, even though the country had my heart.
- I’m 5 feet 9 inches tall.
- I rarely make a recipe only once. If I’m sharing it here, there are probably notes, measurements, photographs, and at least one family taste test behind it.
I’m Glad You’re Here
Whether you came looking for a fresh-milled muffin, a dependable sourdough recipe, a cozy family dinner, or a little encouragement for your own home, I’m so glad you found your way here.
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and stay awhile. We are learning to nourish our families, make useful things with our hands, and notice God’s goodness in the ordinary—one recipe and one imperfect day at a time.
New here? Start with one of my favorite recipes, browse the latest posts, or join my email list to receive new recipes and encouragement from Lemons & Lavender Farm.
