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MaryJane Butters’ sense of purpose
is as big as the Idaho landscape where her organic farm is
nestled. She wants nothing less than to reconnect us all with
the food we eat and the heritage of farming that belongs to
all of us, and nothing more than to empower and encourage
rural women everywhere ... she is cultivating not just a farm
but a philosophy of living. — Body & Soul
Carpenter, waitress, janitor, upholsterer, secretary,
milkmaid, wilderness ranger, environmental activist, entrepreneur–the
founder of MaryJanesFarm has worn many hats in her
day, but none more proudly than that of modern-day farmgirl.
Speaking to the farmgirl in all of us, MaryJane Butters offers
a captivating introduction to the organic lifestyle, resurrects
forgotten domestic arts, and shares lessons gleaned from her
diverse background and two decades of life as an Idaho farmer.
Whether you simply need encouragement to embrace a more authentic,
wholesome lifestyle or you’re looking for guidance on
building a greenhouse, chopping firewood, hosting a town event,
caring for a flock of chickens, making your own butter, growing
a winter salad, or choosing a water filter, MaryJane’s
Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook is both an inspiration and
a practical road map for farmgirls of all stripes.
Dreams are MaryJane Butters’ business, and she has
always pursued them without pausing to consult conventional
wisdom.
— House & Garden
MaryJane Butters, a natural teacher, has a gift for simplification,
and makes it seem that everything she does is easy and attainable.
— The New Yorker
MaryJane Butters discovered
she was a writer when, at age forty-five, she needed a mail-order
catalog for her line of organic foods, produced at her Idaho
farm. When her passion for good stories got out of hand, her
catalog became a "storefront" magazine (MaryJanesFarm),
finding its way into stores like Barnes & Noble and Wal-Mart,
and eventually landing on the desk of a literary agent in
New York.
MaryJane grew up in Utah in a self-sufficient family of seven,
longing for fertile ground where she could raise her own flock
of chickens, maybe a cow or two, and a family. Working her
way north, she made her living as a carpenter, waitress, seamstress,
secretary, janitor, wilderness ranger, community organizer,
and milkmaid.
Rooted now on her own five acres for the past twenty years
(seven of those as a single mom), MaryJane has accomplished
everything she set out to achieve, including a few surprises.
Twelve years ago, she married her neighbor, Nick Ogle, a third-generation
farmer. Together they raised four hard-working children, plus
bees, chickens, goats, cows, peas, beans, hay, wheat, and
every vegetable imaginable, including a biodiesel crop to
fuel MaryJane's car. She also cultivated twenty-seven future
organic farmers in her apprenticeship program called Pay Dirt
Farm School, bought an historic flour mill, and created the
"Farmgirl Connection," a website that brings together
hundreds of women sharing their farmgirl dreams and big farmgirl
hearts.
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