Although my husband and I were products of the suburbs, I always dreamed of living close to the land.  I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder.  When we bought a run-down house on 21 acres in Virginia, I got that chance.

We started with horses, and then got sheep and a llama, and eventually, chickens.  We named our place “Bramble Creek Farm,” because down the hill from our house was a creek, and it was lined with wild roses.  I hated them, because they had terrible thorns and prickers, and our kids learned early on to bail out of their sleds when they got near the bottom of the hill, before they got to the brambles.  When we got our animals, we did not know what we were doing, but we got a lot of help from good people.

I recently published a book about our experiences, called Bumble Creek Farm.  We never were much good at being farmers, but we loved it, we loved our animals, and loved living where we could see the stars at night.

For my day job, I am an award-winning science writer who has written and edited a lot of health publications and contributed to several health books. With the legendary Johns Hopkins surgeon, Patrick C. Walsh, M.D., I am co-author of the bestselling health book for men, Dr. Patrick Walsh’s Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer (Third Edition, Grand Central Publishing: 2012).  For more than 20 years, it has been Amazon’s #1 bestselling men’s health book.

I also am the founding editor of three Johns Hopkins publications:  Discovery, a magazine for the Brady Urological Institute of Johns Hopkins, of Breakthrough, a magazine for the Center for Innovative Medicine at Johns Hopkins, and Leap, a magazine for the Division of Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins.  

Before kids, I used to be the editor of Hopkins Medical News (now Hopkins Medicine) the alumni magazine for the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  I also am a former national commentator for “Marketplace,” a program on public radio.  I have a men’s health blog, too:  vitaljake.com.  Check it out!

Janet Farrar Worthington

Photo by Kimberly Marsh