Welcome!

Jami eating roasted tomato sauce from a spoon in a white kitchen

I’m so glad you’re here at An Oregon Cottage!

What will you find here?

My hope is that every recipe and article provides you with inspiration and encouragement, along with knowledge and confidence, to live your own simple homemade life!

That’s the most important thing I want you to come away with after a visit – the confidence and ability to do the things you want, and not just another recipe for your file.

What is a simple homemade life?

Well, first off it’s definitely NOT doing all.the.things!

At it’s core a simple homemade life is:

  • Simple: Choosing to live more simply and intentionally by reducing things, wants, and outside commitments in order to have more freedom, more time, and more purpose – and then more happiness and contentment.
  • Homemade: Choosing to go back to basics by making as much as we can of what we use, working with the earth and our hands, and in doing so connecting with generations past.

So, simple + homemade = a simple homemade LIFE that looks like:

  • A slower lifestyle: where you make time to wander the garden with a cup of coffee, clip flowers for the house, and spend a few minutes putting them in a vase.
  • Simple foods: where you can enjoy the flavors of the in-season asparagus or beans that you grilled or roasted along with chicken in a simple sauce.
  • Prioritizing people: sitting on the porch or around a table with the people you love takes priority over busy work.
  • Doing things that bring joy: a night of knitting (or any craft/hobby), reading, or hosting a family game night.
  • Making a home: where you live in a space that brings you joy and welcomes others in anytime.

Basically, choosing to slow down and make things easier will have a ripple effect on all areas of your life – your daily tasks, finances, cooking, cleaning, and how you spend your days!

About Jami

Brian and Jami Boys at Hawaii restaurant

I am a former teacher (special ed & preschool), wife to Brian – my funny and easygoing other half who you can see in many videos on our You Tube channel – and a mother to a sweet daughter and awesome son, both young adults now (eek!).

I grew up baking and cooking and when I started a family and grew my first garden that started me down the path of preserving and eating vegetable-heavy foods that used in-season produce. Which led to a lot of healthier food choices to now when we eat real foods with an occasional Kettle brand Salt-and-Pepper chip (my fav, ha!).

I’ve shared this food journey with my readers since 2009, perfecting my recipes and photography – and I’m still learning and sharing with you!

We live in a semi-rural area in the central Willamette Valley of Oregon where we slowly changed our 1982 ranch house into a farmhouse-style cottage before selling it in late 2016 and finding an old 1900 farmhouse to restore.

In addition to the website, I have written a number of cookbooks after many readers asked for them! They include Freezing Produce the Easy Way, Real Food Recipes for Weight Loss, Vegetable Gardening The Easy Way, and more that you can find in my shop here.

Why cottage?

Well, I love everything about a cottage (the small size, the warmth, the character), but especially what I like to call a “cottage mentality,” which for me means living simply and embracing imperfections (our DIY mantra, ha!).

About An Oregon Cottage

I started An Oregon Cottage way back in February of 2009 as a way to share recipes, frugal tips, garden successes (and failures!), remodeling adventures and the joys of a simple life – always from the mindset of what I would’ve wanted to know when I was first starting our family and raising our kids.

Yeah. Waaaay before the internet.

Over the years, the site has evolved into a Food & Garden blog emphasizing three main areas:

With a little bit of DIY remodeling and handmade gifts thrown in – using a lot of cost-cutting and easy techniques!

Do you see a trend here?

Everything you’ll find here is do-able. For everyone.

Ready to explore ways to live your own simple, homemade life?

Here are some places to start!

Click here to subscribe and never miss a thing!

When you to subscribe to An Oregon Cottage by email you’ll get all the new tips, articles and recipes right in your inbox, either on the day the articles are published or as a once-a-week newsletter – it’s up to you! Oh, and I hate spam, so I will not inundate your email with anything other than our updates (see more of my privacy policy here).

I’d also love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at: jami@anoregoncottage.com. Also be sure to follow me on You Tube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook – I love to connect with readers any way possible!