Courtney Dyer is an educator turned homeschool mother to three kiddos, all while running a small family farm, Smithville’s farmers’ market, and the nonprofit that surrounds it.

“I absolutely love to create, love all things crafty, and am dedicated to being a lifelong learner.”

1. Why did you move to Paige?

My husband and I always knew we wanted to buy land at some point. We had been looking for years, mostly just as dreamers, and really hadn’t pinned down what area spoke to us most. Then, one day our search landed us in Bastrop and we really fell in love with the area. So we narrowed our search, got a lot more serious, and ended up finding a gem of a property at the start of the pandemic. We bought 18 acres in May of 2020 in what we thought was Smithville, but when we broke ground on the house and finally added a mailbox, we were surprised to have an address in Paige. As it turns out, our property is right on the border of both towns and while our back gate is in Smithville, our front gate is in Paige.

2. What compelled you to start a farm in Paige and a farmers’ market in Smithville?

Back in my younger days, I was such a big city girl but as I’ve gotten older I have felt this calling for a quieter, more simple way of living. Once we started looking for land, my dreams of our own small family farm soared. It all started with chickens and just grew from there. We switched the existing ag exemption from cattle to bees since I always knew I wanted at least one hive. What difference was nine more?! Then, we added donkeys to help keep the coyotes away and our flock now consists of too many chickens to count, a handful of ducks, and some geese. We also have 16 raised beds for growing our own food and 2 large flower fields for my cut flower farm. And this is just our beginning… there is so much more to come. One of the things I love most about farm life is the steep learning curves. My mind absolutely craves those types of challenges!

As for the farmers’ market in Smithville, this project transpired while I was looking for a place to sell my flowers and honey. As I reached out to a local market manager, I was completely turned off by how unfriendly and unsupportive they were and I wondered how many other vendors had felt the same. My family joked that I should just start my own and the rest is history. I started doing my research, found a need in my own small town, got connected to a local real estate agent who loved my idea, went before our City Council, and a couple months later I was up and running! This project is such a labor of love for me and I absolutely love hosting it for our community.

3. Tell me three things you’ve learned in the past five years.

Having a green thumb is not something you either have or you don’t. It is cultivated and with a little effort and an open mind, anything is possible!

Farm life is a slow life, but there ain’t nothing slow about it!

It only takes one small flame to start a fire. Being the change can start with one.

4. What are you currently making, reading, watching, or listening to?

I absolutely love to learn new crafts and skills. Currently, I am teaching myself to knit and have been working on a few bookbinding projects. Watercolor and embroidery are also on my list this year. As for reading, I am currently deep diving into all the books/information on native plant gardening in Texas as I believe in gardening with a purpose and supporting native pollinators and wildlife. My TV watchlist consists of anything romantic, girly, or period-based like The Last Kingdom or Bridgerton. And I love to listen to Disney movie soundtracks while driving in the car.

5. Cake or Pie?

Pie, without a doubt. Fun fact- When my husband and I got married, we actually cut into pie instead of the traditional cake and had a pie bar served for our guests.

Instagram: @ivoryacresfarm
Website: ivoryacresfarm.com

Instagram: @smithvillemarket
Website: smithvillemarket.com

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I cannot believe I started this blog 15 years ago today.

Bean & Noodle started as a Typepad blog in 2005 and is now a blog + online shop for my letterpress cards and silverware.

There are many reasons people blog. Some people blog in hopes of landing a fat book deal. Others blog about specific subjects and somehow become regarded as experts in the field. Some may actually have the expertise to back it, some just have experiences to share and a voice that makes people listen. Artists, designers and stylists blog because it’s a super user friendly way to show their work instead of a website.

Why did I start blogging?

Mine is a more personal reason. I started blogging to share my life with the women in my family… most importantly, at that time, my mother who I met in 2004. My sister and I were reunited with our mother who had given us up for adoption in the 1970s. We had spent the three years prior to adoption with an amazing foster family, with whom we have always remained in contact. We had not seen my mother since I was almost 5, and my sister was almost 2. When my sister found her, we traveled to New Jersey to visit her for a week. We knew she’d been a musician and artist (my parents were folk musicians in the 1960s… I was born in ’65, my sister in ’67). We discovered that she had been a weaver.

This struck a chord with me as I had always been drawn to textiles and had no idea why. My sister shares our mother’s love and talent for photography. I taught myself to knit when I returned home and have been knitting almost daily since. I feel I am tapping into some genetic memory every time I pick up my needles and yarn to knit.

I won’t go into much more detail, because this story belongs to my sister as much as it belongs to me. I mention it only to shed a little light on why it was so important for me to embark on, what seemed to me the ultimate narcissistic endeavour. I mean who really gives a shit if I finally finished my alpaca shawl and that after a long, crappy day only the comfort of a simple roast chicken and mashed potatoes would feel like a hug?

I can count on one hand the number of people who do.

Facebook and Instagram lured me away from here for a while, but this past year I have found I like sharing here more than ever. I’m no writer, but I like to write and share things that I find funny, beautiful, or helpful. It’s also fun to look back at older posts. If you follow the link at the end of this post to my first ever blog posts…. you’ll find I still blog about knitting, cooking, and digging in the dirt.

Today I realize the real reason I started blogging was to show Toni that I have a good life. I am happy, have a wonderful husband, dogs and cats, that I am creating stuff all the time. That her decision did not destroy our lives.

And I pray every day that it did not destroy hers.

P.S. Check out my first ever post here