Flinders was born to Gilbert H. and Jeanne Lee Ramage,[1] and grew up on a farm in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
"[9]: 153 Flinders also wrote a weekly syndicated column called “Laurel’s Kitchen” for a number of years.
The first published in 1989,The Making of a Teacher, (coauthored with her husband Timothy Flinders) provided an oral history of the life and work of Eknath Easwaran, who had helped inspire the creation of Laurel's Kitchen.
[4] Flinders published the syndicated newspaper column based on her cookbook, Laurel's Kitchen for many years.
[1] The column was published in a number of newspapers including The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA),[13] and The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR).